Isaiah Stevens has never lost an Orange Out.
Colorado State beat UNLV in the 2020 edition back when “Zay” was just a freshman. Now five years later, the greatest player in program history fittingly helped guide the Rams to victory over the Rebels once again (78-75).
“When the orange comes out, we find a way to get the dub,” an exhausted, but smiling Stevens said postgame. “I never said it would be pretty though.”
After trailing by 7 at halftime and going down by as much as 10 in the second half, CSU, sparked by a strong defensive effort and an efficient offensive output, was able to turn the game around in front of a sold-out Moby Arena crowd.
The Rebels refused to go down without a fight in this one. It wasn’t as if they laid down or choked the game away with incompetence down the stretch. The Rams just found a way to make more plays than the opposition in an extremely entertaining matchup between long-time conference foes.
“High-level basketball tonight, you know, two teams going at it,” Niko Medved said postgame.
“I thought both teams played well in a lot of areas. The crowd was awesome. I mean, you could feel it. Friday night’s at Moby, another high-level Mountain West game.”
Medved continued, praising the resolve of his squad on a night where they went down against a really talented UNLV team. He explained how he thought that on the offensive end, for the most part, the Rams got back to who they have been as a team this year.
There were some stretches where they struggled to knock down open looks but it was not due to stagnation or poor offensive action. The ball was moving, guys were cutting and CSU was getting makeable shots. They just weren’t falling for the Rams early on.
Fortunately for the Green & Gold, the second half was a different story. After shooting 44 percent from the floor and 31 percent from beyond the arc over the first 20 minutes, the Rams shot 54 percent and 42 percent over the final 20. The majority of the production came from the trio of Isaiah Stevens, Nique Clifford and Joel Scott, who scored 10 points apiece in the second half and combined for 53 of CSU’s 78 points in the win.
Stevens was the initiator that created the majority of CSU’s offense and it was his assertiveness that really put the Rebels in a bind.
After going down 10 in the second half, Stevens drove straight to the hoop on four consecutive possessions and all of them resulted in points. On the first sequence Stevens went hard to the hole and finished through contact. But on the three ensuing possessions, either via the point guard himself or through a pass in between, Scott ended up getting dished the rock for a wide-open dunk.
The 8-0 run over about 90 seconds of gametime was the spark that the Rams needed to flip the momentum of the matchup. And after briefly going down double digits, from that point forward, CSU never trailed by more than two possessions over the final 13 minutes.
When the game was there for the taking, to their credit, the Rams really did everything necessary to steal the win. They forced 11 turnovers in the second half which resulted in 18 points the other way. Conversely they only had three giveaways in the second half after having six in the first.
The Rams were also able to match UNLV in points scored in the paint while doubling their output from deep — albeit on significantly more attempts. It was an instance of a veteran teams figuring out how to get just enough against a physical Rebels defense.
That’s not to say that CSU does not have things to work on. The Rams got very little production out of the bench unit and this team is extremely dependent on Stevens and Clifford to score. But on a night where the Rams really needed to show what they were made of, they found a way to get it done.
Clifford led all scorers with 21 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the floor. He also paced the team in rebounds (7) and was second in assists (4). His biggest play of the game, though, was probably the block he had on Kalib Boone in the paint with the game tied at 68 apiece.
“He’s just been massive for us,” Medved said of the Colorado transfer.
“I’m just so happy to see him having the success he’s having. The buy-in that he’s had right away. His shot making tonight was terrific. But man, the play of the game might have been him coming over from the weak side and blocking (Boone). That was going to be a layup and he blocked it. That was a difference maker.”
With 18 points and seven assists against UNLV on Friday, Stevens has now finished with double-digit figures in eight of his nine career games against the Rebels (seven straight). While there is not an opponent out there that he typically plays poorly against, there seems to be something about the UNLV game that brings out the “Zay Mode” in him.
The Rams will need more star performances from the veterans over the next six weeks. After surviving a couple of close calls at home this week, we’ll see what this group is able to do on an always-challenging road trip to Reno and Laramie.
