FORT COLLINS, CO. — In a showdown between two of the best teams in the Mountain West, Utah State proved once again that they are still the team to beat. Coming off of a home sweep of San Diego State, the Aggies advanced to 9-0 in league play with a convincing 83-64 win over Colorado State (10-3, 7-2) on Tuesday night.
With a game plan designed to try and keep Neemias Queta out of the paint, the Rams kept things tight for about the first 8 minutes of the matchup. Quickly, though, Queta’s presence on the boards, and his skill in the post, proved to be too much for a Rams rotation that currently only features one player listed at 6-foot-10 or above.
The 7-footer from Portugal absolutely dominated the game on both ends of the floor, finishing the night with 18 points, 12 rebounds and a trio of blocks on defense. When Queta wanted to play with his back to the bucket and put the ball on the floor, he was able to finish at the rim with finesse. And the toughest part for the Green & Gold was they couldn’t consistently send help from the guards because whenever anyone sunk down low, a red-hot Brock Miller always seemed to be wide-open at the perimeter, just waiting to kill the Rams with a dagger three.
“Queta does a great job of moving out of the help,” Medved said. “They got in a rhythm too and made us pay.”
In total, Miller finished with 20 points on 60 percent shooting from deep. But ultimately it was Queta that made the true difference for Utah State in this one — in the paint, on the glass, and in all phases of the game.
While Queta and Miller lived up to expectations individually, it was a dominant team showing from the Aggies all around — particularly on the defensive end. For the most part they genuinely shut down a CSU offense that had been playing extremely well coming in, and did so by consistently clogging up the lanes and contesting CSU’s jump shots.
The Aggies held the Rams to just 39 percent shooting from the floor, which was the worst CSU has shot as a team since their pitiful performance at Saint Mary’s. With 15 CSU turnovers leading to 21 points for the Aggies as well, there just wasn’t a whole lot that went well for the visiting Rams.
“What really stood out to me was our defense,” head coach Niko Medved said. “We knew we had to rebound… and I just thought defensively we were never able to gain any footing at all.”
After beating down a poor San Jose State team on the road last week, CSU can still end the road trip with a winning record if they manage to split with the Aggies on Thursday night. With no game being guaranteed in the COVID-19 era, a strong showing against Utah State in Game 2 would be a big boost for CSU’s national perception. The Rams have been receiving some NCAA Tournament buzz lately but how they handle the next three games will be massive for their chances of potentially receiving an at-large bid.
Tough nights on the road are bound to happen. Ultimately it’s how the Rams respond that will matter in the end.
Next Up: Utah State (Thursday at 9:00 p.m. MT).
