Adam Thistlewood sends the Jackrabbits back to South Dakota with tails between their legs

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — After dropping tough games to San Diego State and Boise State last week, it was good for the Rams to get back that winning feeling Tuesday night.

Colorado State men’s basketball defeated South Dakota State 72-68 in an up-and-down game that could have gone either way.

For much of the contest, the Rams did not play with enough urgency in any phase of the game — and they even trailed with less than a minute to play. With 18 seconds left on the clock, though, Adam Thistlewood was able to bury what would be a game-winning 3-pointer in transition (70-68). The sophomore forward only hit one shot from beyond the arc all night but it was obviously the most important one.

Senior guard Kris Martin later ended things with a little flare when threw down a two-handed dunk with 4 seconds on the clock (72-68).

ThistleGOOD for 3! Rams now lead by 2 with 17.3 seconds to go pic.twitter.com/Z5Mb5XYcUO

— DNVR Rams (@DNVR_Rams) December 11, 2019

“We found a way to win a really tough game,” head coach Niko Medved said postgame. “I fully expected this to be a really close, hard-fought game. You’ve gotta give those guys a lot of credit. Quite frankly, like I told our guys in the locker room, I thought that they played with a lot more of an edge than we did for the majority of the game. But to our guy’s credit, they didn’t fold.”

In the win over the Jackrabbits, CSU came out of the gate pretty sluggish. In the first half especially, the Rams gave SDSU way too many open looks from beyond the arc and didn’t do a great job of tracking down rebounds either. As a result, the Jackrabbits were able to keep things tight and even had an opportunity to take the lead before halftime. They just simply failed to execute an inbound lob from the baseline.

In the second half, the Rams came out with better energy.  CSU executed an ‘alley oop’ to Nico Carvacho on the opening possession of the second half — and from there, the Rams did a better job of dictating the pace of the game and getting out in transition. In the winning effort, CSU (16) doubled SDSU (8) in fast break points.

That said, as Medved addressed postgame, CSU was still far too sloppy with the basketball, especially against a team that does not press or play overwhelmingly aggressive defense. In total, the Rams recorded 17 turnovers and allowed nine second chance points.

“My message to the team all the time is what you wouldn’t accept in losing, you cannot accept in winning,” Medved said.

Moving forward, the Rams will have to tighten up things on both ends of the floor. All things considered, though, Tuesday’s victory was a promising team effort.

At different points of the game, the guards stepped up and drained shots from deep. John Tonje, Kris Martin and Kendle Moore combined to go 6-of-12 from beyond the arc, despite the team finishing just 7-of-19 from 3-point territory.

Carvacho was a consistent menace on the glass as well, finishing with a game-high 12 rebounds. And when he needed a breather, CSU really benefited from Dischon Thomas coming in and scoring 8 points in just 0ver 10 minutes of action.

Really, there wasn’t anybody on the floor that failed to contribute in one way or another. Everyone that played for CSU on Tuesday ended up with at least a pair of buckets and the Rams picked up a very-important 26 points from the bench.

“Our bench is growing,” Medved said. “John (Tonje) and Dischon (Thomas) are clearly starting to get more comfortable. David (Roddy), Hyron (Edwards) as well.  I think that’s awesome for us right now.”

After taking down the Jackrabbits, the Rams (7-5, 0-2) will now turn their attention to the University of Colorado. The Buffs come to town Friday night and will likely be hungry for a win after losing a close game to Northern Iowa at home tonight.

“We’ll be ready for Friday,” Medved said. “College basketball is tough. You play all these games, these teams are well prepared and they come at you with a lot of confidence. Friday is going to be a war and we’re going to have to play one of our best games of the year — but I’m confident our guys will be ready to compete.”