FORT COLLINS — Too little, too late.
Colorado State tried to make things interesting with a late run against UNLV on Friday night. After digging themselves in a massive hole, though, it was simply too little and too late for the Green & Gold, who fell to the Rebels 78-66 at Moby Arena.
By the time the two teams tipped off, the Rams were favored by as much as 15 points — so the expectation was that the more proven team would significantly outperform the visiting Rebels — but that was definitely not the case. CSU never led once in this one, trailed by 18 at halftime and by as much as 22 in the second half. It was an old fashioned butt whoopin’ and a really disappointing outcome in front of the first sellout crowd since 2015.
Following the loss men’s head basketball coach Niko Medved opened by addressing the event with UC Health, as the Rams represented cancer survivors on the backs of their jerseys in place of their own names. “It was bigger than basketball, regardless of the score. I thought it was a great event and meant a lot to our guys to get a chance to connect with the cancer warriors.”
Medved then credited UNLV for coming into a hostile environment and playing extremely physically and creating good opportunities for themselves offensively. Their best performer was obviously Bryce Hamilton, who lit it up with 45 points on 14-of-22 shooting. Hamilton hit eight of UNLV’s 12 threes and just generally put on a show. It was one of the better offensive showings that I’ve ever seen in person in a college basketball game, however, CSU’s defense was also lacking for too many stretches in the game. Far too frequently the Rams allowed the Rebels to get up an uncontested three and to UNLV’s credit they consistently made CSU pay.
“They made a lot of shots,” Medved said. “A lot of it was us, some of it was them too, in the way that they played. And I think you’ve got to make sure to give them credit.”
On CSU’s side, Isaiah Stevens scored a career-high 35 points on 12-of-21 shooting. The junior point guard hit five of his eight attempts from beyond the arc, went 6-of-6 at the free throw line and tied David Roddy with a game-leading eight rebounds. Roddy also had 13 points and three assists, but he wasn’t dominant down low like he tends to be on most nights. And really, outside of Stevens, nobody else on CSU was able to get in a groove enough to make a serious cut into the deficit.
After another slow start burned the Rams on Friday, Medved was honest about his confusion on why it continues to happen. He stated that his team just looked “a little cool” and didn’t play with the necessary edge to come out victorious in a league game. He said he didn’t feel like the Rams rebounded well enough, which limited their transition opportunities. Medved didn’t like the lack of movement on offense. Up until CSU made a late push and cut UNLV’s lead in half, Medved didn’t like much of anything his team did in the loss.
“We came out in the second half and we fought but you know, we can’t pat ourselves on the back for that,” Medved said. “These guys always fought but it was just too little too late. And we just could not overcome all those things here today.”
After falling to UNLV at home, CSU now has two of the biggest games of the season coming up next week. The Rams will travel to Wyoming on Monday, before hosting San Diego State on Friday.
“This should hurt,” Medved said. “You’ve got to do some soul searching. It’s just like we celebrate winning, you know, and this stings. But then once we get up tomorrow, we’ve got to learn from it, and we’ve got to quickly get over it and move on to the next one.”
