LAS VEGAS — Colorado State is now one win away from playing for a Mountain West Championship.
After taking down No. 2 Nevada, 85-78, in an epic battle between a pair of talented teams on Thursday night, the seven-seeded Rams have an opportunity to keep the revenge tour rolling if they are able to handle No. 6 New Mexico on Friday.
Here are the takeaways from the win over the Wolf Pack.
Clifford was everywhere
Nique Clifford did a little bit of everything against UNR on Thursday night.
He scored 14 points on an efficient 5-of-8 from the floor. He led CSU in total rebounds, finishing with twice as many as anybody else on the team to solidify his eighth double-double of the 2023-24 campaign (14 points, 10 rebounds). And just in case that wasn’t enough to get the job done, Clifford added in five assists, three blocks and a pair of steals, too.
After getting out-played by Nevada’s stars in the regular season, it was great to see CSU’s leaders really step up and take this matchup personally. The intensity on the floor was palpable and there was a ton of trash talk going back and forth. But you could tell how locked in guys like Clifford were on both ends.
Following the win, Clifford admitted that the matchup was definitely chippy throughout, especially between him and Kenan Blackshear. Really, though, it was just about a group of competitors giving it their all out there. Both sides wanted it bad.
“That’s what we love to do,” he said. “We love to compete. They got the best of us twice, so it was a little personal for us. We had a chip on our shoulder going into the game and it was a lot of fun getting after it against them. You know, he’s a good player. But we got the best of him tonight.”
Bench provided a boost
Jalen Lake (16) and Joe Palmer (12) nearly combining for 30 points was such a massive boost for CSU’s offense.
Lake, in particular, created a spark in the first half by scoring 15 points on a perfect 5-of-5 from the field. The Wolf Pack did not respect him as a shooter early on and the savvy veteran made them pay with his best scoring output since the win over Colorado in November.
If CSU can continue to get this type of production out of the rotation, look out. A lot of these guys have gone through ups and downs over the course of the season, but they are certainly capable of going off in any given game.
“I’m just proud of those dudes,” Clifford said of his teammates. “The adversity we’ve been through this year — we’ve had guys that can really shoot the ball who have went through some shooting slumps. You know, we just stick with it, keep working. And those guys, all the work they put in every day, it’s showing up right now on the biggest stage.”
Stevens was in complete control
Nevada never went down easy in this one. They scored 45 second-half points and shot about 55 percent from the floor over the final 20 minutes.
The difference in the game was that when the Wolf Pack needed to string together consecutive stops, they had no answers for CSU’s motion offense. It did not matter if the Wolf Pack were in man or zone, the Rams worked the ball around the perimeter, played inside-out and consistently created high-quality looks.
Everybody on the team deserves praise for their efforts in the win. It’s not as if this is a one-man band or anything like that. Obviously, though, having a point guard like Isaiah Stevens is a massive advantage in these situations.
Stevens scored 8 of his 14 points in the second half and constantly put pressure on Nevada with the way he drove on them. When the game was there for the taking, his killer mentality was definitely on display.
