DENVER — Colorado State (21-4, 11-4) was hot entering Saturday’s matchup with UNLV (16-11, 8-6). Winners in five straight overall and coming off back-to-back road victories, a win in Sin City would have gone a long way for the Rams in the race for the regular season Mountain West Championship, especially with two of the final three games taking place at Moby Arena.
Unfortunately for the Green & Gold, their luck turned for the worst at the Thomas and Mack Center, as the Rams were beaten handily by the Rebels for a second time this season. The 72-51 loss completes the season sweep over the Rams by UNLV. It also puts CSU in a position where they will need to win out but also need both Boise State and Wyoming to lose a game outside of their respective trips to Fort Collins for the Rams to be able to win the league title.
Bryce Hamilton dropped 42 points in UNLV’s first win over CSU this year, so all eyes were on him. In the first half the Rams did a nice job of containing the dangerous scorer, holding him to 7 points on 40 percent shooting from the floor (2-of-5). Hamilton came out of the break and hit a couple of tough threes though. Then he was able to get to the hoop on a few drives. That spark from Hamilton allowed the Rebels to expand an 11 point halftime lead to 22 within the first 8 minutes of the second half. And from there UNLV cruised to a double-digit victory over CSU, on a night where UNLV was 5 point underdogs coming in.
Hamilton led the home team in scoring with 20 points, although it wasn’t the most efficient outing from him (6-of-15). The big difference between this outing and the last one was that Hamilton benefited more from his supporting cast. Michael Nuba (13 points) and Jordan McCabe were both effective (9 points). Donovann Williams (8 points) and Royce Hamm Jr. (7 points) combined for 15 too. As a team, UNLV was just much more consistent offensively.
The Rebels shot 45 percent from the floor and 38 percent from deep, while the Rams shot 35 percent from the floor and 22 percent from deep. UNLV deserves credit for their defensive effort, however, CSU also approached the game with far too much passiveness on the offensive end. They settled for a lot of mediocre looks which weren’t falling. In general the Rams just looked much less aggressive than they typically do, potentially a product of a tough travel schedule. The Rams were playing their second game this weekend and fifth game in five cities in the last 12 days. Regardless, it definitely was not the performance Ram Nation was hoping for.
UNLV dominated on the glass, finishing with a 45-24 advantage in total rebounds and a 13-5 advantage in offensive rebounds. As a result of their persistence the Rebels had more than twice as many second chance points (11 vs. 5) and 10 more free throw opportunities (24 vs. 14). They also finished with more points in the paint, though the majority of the damage was done from the 3-point line and charity stripe.
Just like the last time around, Isaiah Stevens led CSU in scoring against UNLV on Saturday, with 14 points. He paced the Rams in assists as well (3). As a team, though, CSU only recorded eight assists in total. It was just the second time this season that the Rams had less than 10 assists as a team, the other was the 30 point beatdown at San Diego State. Unsurprisingly they are CSU’s two worst offensive performances as a unit, both in terms of points scored and overall field goal percentage.
Outside of Stevens, David Roddy had 11 points but really struggled to get in a rhythm (4-of-14). John Tonje was third in scoring with 10 points. There just really wasn’t much that went well for CSU offensively.
Ultimately losses like Saturday’s are a part of college basketball. Just like you can’t get too caught up in the highs of winning, the Rams don’t have time to dwell on a disappointing setback. Their NCAA Tournament resume is still incredibly strong but a couple of more big wins would really give everyone some peace of mind heading into the Mountain West Tournament. Plus you never know how things will shake out with the Cowboys and Broncos down the stretch. The odds aren’t in CSU’s favor but the dream of winning the first-ever regular season Mountain West Championship aren’t dead quite yet.
Next up: Wyoming on Wednesday night.
