Chandler Jacobs, Colorado State's bench made a huge difference in Wednesday's win over Wyoming

FORT COLLINS — Colorado State took care of business in Wednesday’s 61-55 win over Wyoming. 

In one of the most important games of the season so far, the Rams locked down two of the best players in the Mountain West, holding Graham Ike and Hunter Maldonado to a combined 12 points on 5-of-19 shooting. It was about as well as one could hope to play against the talented duo, and it was especially impressive given what was at stake in the matchup. 

While it was a brutal night for Wyoming’s stars, Drake Jeffries was able to hit six of his 15 attempts from beyond the arc to lead the Cowboys with 22 points. During the postgame press conference men’s head basketball coach Niko Medved tipped his hat to Jeffries for making some extremely tough shots against the Rams.  “That’s what he does,” Medved said. But ultimately Medved’s strategy of forcing anyone other than Ike and Maldonado to shoot the ball ended up working out in CSU’s favor. 

Conversely, while it was not necessarily a great day for the Rams on offense, David Roddy went off for the Green & Gold, recording his fifth double-double of the year with 26 points, 11 rebounds and three steals.  Chandler Jacobs lit up the second half with 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting to help CSU seal the deal too. Jacobs would finish with a season-high 18 points, seven rebounds, one block and one steal in 26 minutes on the floor. His four made threes were also the most he’s recorded in a single game this year. 

Medved explained postgame that in both games against Wyoming this season the Cowboys elected to play the drive when Jacobs got the basketball. So instead of coming out to challenge the veteran at the 3-point line, Jacobs’ defenders were hanging around the paint on the weak side trying to prevent him from getting any type of open lane to drive in. With how skilled Jacobs is as a ball handler and how explosive he is on the drive, it’s not shocking that Wyoming opted to try and force him to beat them from deep. Their strategy just backfired as it allowed Jacobs to step up and knock down jump shots in rhythm. 

“He’s put in the work, he’s a good shooter, and it’s just continuing to develop that confidence,” Medved said of Jacobs. 

“Man, it was awesome,” Roddy later added. “He’s a great kid and can shoot lights out as you can see. “We just wanted him to stay ready to shoot because I mean, they’re leaving him wide open, so he stepped up and knocked down a lot of big shots today.” 

Wednesday night might have been the biggest game from Jacobs, at least in terms of scoring production in a CSU uniform, it was not the first time that he stepped up for the Rams in a must-win game though. In the overtime win over Boise State on Feb. 13, Jacobs scored 16 points, pulled down seven rebounds and recorded both a block and steal in 27 minutes. On that day he scored the final 5 points in regulation and the first 6 points for CSU in OT. 

That’s what has made Jacobs so unique and special this season — whatever the Rams have needed from him — the fifth-year senior has been able to deliver with a smile on his face. 

“I feel good, man,” Jacobs said postgame. “Coming into the game, I wanted to be ultra aggressive on both ends of the floor. That was kind of the mindset that I had. I went to bed last night just prepping for this game. So it felt good to execute it and have some things go my way.” 

Along with Jacobs, the Rams also benefited from strong defensive performances out of James Moors and Isaiah Rivera off the bench. If you only looked at the final box score it probably wouldn’t be obvious that the aforementioned were extremely impactful in the win, considering they combined for 5 points and six rebounds. But Moors gave Ike fits in the paint all night long and was impressively able to guard the physical big man without racking up fouls. And when Rivera poked the ball loose from Maldonado and then got the savvy Wyoming guard to pick up his fourth personal foul with a blocking call around mid-court, it was one of the most important plays of the night. 

What was particularly impressive was that Rivera had already been called for a ridiculous charge earlier in the night, so it would have been easy for him to turn down the aggressiveness after having a call go against him. But with about 10 minutes left in the second half, Rivera showed why the staff has grown more and more comfortable with having him play crucial minutes for this team. 

“I think it was a big momentum swing,” Medved said. “Hunter Maldonado is a terrific player, I thought our guys did a good job of trying to pick him up full-court, trying to pressure him, and he’s such a terrific passer so he was finding shooters and all that. But I thought that was a huge play in the game. You know, whatever happened, he went in and had an offensive foul called on him. But he came back and made a huge play for us down the stretch. 

“When you’re in games like this, every play is huge,” Medved continued. “And this was a defensive game, and we just needed to come up with a couple more stops than they did.”

The Rams will look to carry that same defensive intensity over into Saturday night’s game at Utah State. The Rams were able to beat the Aggies 77-72 in the first meeting but winning in Logan, Utah is never an easy thing to do. We’ll see if the Rams are to the task.