On to the next one: CSU Rams upset Broncos 88-81, move onward to MW semifinals

Luck be a lady; Colorado State was lucky to escape Thursday night with a win in Las Vegas.

The Rams fought stalwartly and won 88-81 over the Boise State Broncos, a game which went nearly went into the early hours of Friday morning here in the Mountain Time Zone.

Things started going CSU’s way when Boise’s best player, James Webb III earned two fouls within the first three minutes of the contest. Webb had to sit and the Rams clawed to a 20-14 lead when Antwan Scott nailed a 3-pointer. That was the biggest lead in a half which saw 11 ties, and Boise’s 11-2 run following gave them the 27-22 advantage before CSU closed the gap. Back and forth it went, with the teams hitting a combined 13 3-pointers to end the first half tied 45-45.

That furious scoring continued in the second half as one team would pull away slightly and the other would come back to tie, trading baskets back and forth. But, with the Rams up 3 and 1:49 left, Scott nailed a clutch 3-pointer to push the Rams ahead by six. Then, he was fouled, went 1-2 from the line and then rebounded a missed shot. Scott was money in the clutch when the Rams needed him most and they held on to win by 7.

STAR OF THE GAME

Antwan Scott was the star of the game for two reasons: He was again electric, scoring a team-high 23 points points in a variety of ways and he took the single-season 3-point record for a CSU player. His clutch 3-pointer late pushed the Rams ahead by six and basically sealed the deal.

PLAY OF THE GAME

Play of the first half was Anthony Drmic's steal which led to this insane and-one by James Webb III to cap 9-0 run. pic.twitter.com/s9rPsYxJNG

— Rich (midnight blue 🌠and sunshine yellow ☀️) (@RichKurtzman) March 11, 2016

The play of the second half and of the game for the Rams was Scott’s huge 3-pointer with 1:49 to go.

Antwan Scott's huge 3-pointer, the play of the game for #CSURams, pushing them ahead by 6 with 1:49 to play. #mwbb pic.twitter.com/lxwdkhv7VZ

— Rich (midnight blue 🌠and sunshine yellow ☀️) (@RichKurtzman) March 11, 2016

TURNING POINT

John Gillon injured his knee when he fell and the Broncos went on a 7-0 run to take the 75-72 lead. The Rams hung in there, though, and Gillon made his return a few minutes later.

BY THE NUMBERS

3-pointers: Together, the teams made a combined 20 3-pointers. CSU sank 13-29 (44.8 percent) and Boise went 7-24 (29.2)

94 3-pointers makes Antwan Scott the single-season leader in Colorado State Rams men’s basketball history.

CSU had 11 turnovers and the Broncos scored 21 points off those. They need to be better in that department tomorrow night.

The Rams out-rebounded Boise 34-28 and Tiel Daniels had 14 of those boards.

Boise State dominated in the paint, outscoring CSU 38-18.

In all, there were 17 lead changes and 17 ties.

QUOTE OF THE GAME

“We’ve been through a lot…We’ve had a lot of things happen to our team we couldn’t control,” Larry Eustachy said after the win. “We’re very resilient…We got terrific stops at the end…I thought, overall, it was a great game. It could’ve gone either way.”

“We were out of it after about four minutes,” Eustachy said about the last game against Fresno State. “It’s going to be a big challenge…We’ll take it one at a time. We’ll enjoy this one for about eight minutes.”

LASTING IMPACT

The Rams finished the year 2-1 over Boise State and improve to 18-15 overall.

WHAT’S NEXT

Next up, the Rams play the great Fresno State Bulldogs (23-9). That game tips off, again incredibly late, at 9:30 p.m. MT on CBS Sports Network.