Rams takeaways: Colorado State controlled throughout in a road win over Nevada

DENVER — Colorado State secured a crucial road win over the University of Nevada on Tuesday night (82-72). 

Led by David Roddy (29 points) and Kendle Moore (22 points), the Rams went into the Lawlor Events Center and led for all but three minutes against the Wolf Pack. UNR did make a late run to cut the deficit to two possessions in the final minutes but ultimately CSU did enough to earn victory and keep pace with the other contenders in the Mountain West. 

“You know, our guys came out today and took care of business,” men’s head basketball coach Niko Medved said postgame. “I thought that we came out with a good mindset. We got a lead, we played with the lead, and we found a way to get a huge road win.”

Here are the takeaways from Tuesday night. 

CSU’s depth prevailed

Desmond Cambridge Jr. did his best to spoil the night for Ram fans. He scored 36 points on 13-of-15 shooting and seemingly couldn’t miss at times. 

Niko Medved praised Cambridge Jr. postgame for his ability to get CSU spread out defensively and then knock down shots. “He made every dang one of them when he got his hands on the ball.” 

To CSU’s credit, though, the Rams didn’t panic. Plus, the problem for Nevada was that outside of the 36 they got outside of Cambridge Jr, the other eight players for the Wolf Pack combined to produce the same (36 points). 

It’s definitely a bit alarming that opposing players have been able to put up NBA numbers against the Rams over the past month. After Bryce Hamilton, Hunter Maldonado and Matt Bradley all went off against the Green & Gold, Cambridge Jr. continued that trend in this one. CSU obviously needs to defend the perimeter more consistently against some of the elite scorers in the Mountain West. But there also feels like a bit of randomness to it. I don’t know — Hamilton and Cambridge Jr. are talented players — but they shot the ball like All-Americans against the Rams. 

Sometimes you’ve just gotta shake your head and laugh, especially when it doesn’t really end up mattering, as was the case against Nevada. In the end the better team won on Tuesday. 

The Rams played with composure down the stretch

CSU had a bit of a shaky start with turnovers, recording four in the first five minutes of action. However, after playing a little too reckless with the ball out of the gate, the Rams really settled in nicely against the Wolf Pack and only recorded four more turnovers over the final 35 minutes. 

You simply cannot afford giveaways and empty possessions on the road, particularly when the home team has a guy that’s on fire. So it was great to see the Rams move the ball and create quality looks for themselves consistently, but do so without putting the ball in harm’s way. 

“We just settled a little bit into the groove of the game,” Medved said postgame. “I thought early we maybe weren’t cutting as hard as we needed to or whatever. But we didn’t change anything. We just tried to play with a little bit more pace. You know, just be a little bit fundamentally sound or play off two feet, cut harder, and snap our passes. The guys just played with a little bit more edge on the offensive end that way.”

CSU won the glass 

Along with limiting turnovers, one of the aspects Medved was most pleased with was his team’s effort on the glass. CSU finished with a slim advantage in total rebounds (27 vs. 23). What really stood out, though, was that Nevada only had one offensive rebound all night. 

“I thought two stats that were huge tonight were we only turned it over eight times and we only gave up one offensive rebound,” Medved said. “So we didn’t turn the ball over and we didn’t give them any second opportunities.”

Kendle Moore got his moment

Finally, we already covered the excellent games from David Roddy and Kendle Moore, respectively, in the first piece on Tuesday’s game. But it really was a feel-good moment for the senior to have a breakout performance in a big-time road win.

Moore has been a phenomenal teammate through a situation that could bring out the worst in a more selfish individual. Instead of focusing on the fact that he has primarily had a smaller role on offense, though, Moore has continued to make an impact on defense consistently. And against the Wolf Pack he finally got his chance to shine on both ends of the floor.

“The hardest thing to handle is diversity and success,” Medved said. “And when things aren’t going your way, you’ve just got to keep coming back and in Kendle’s case, you know, he’s done it before. So this isn’t a guy who hasn’t done it before… And we needed him. We needed him to come through and step up.”

Next Up

The schedule doesn’t get any easier for CSU this week. The Rams will host Orlando Robinson and the Fresno State Bulldogs on Friday night, before traveling for a game at Boise State on Sunday afternoon.