DENVER — The Colorado State men’s basketball team won its fifth consecutive game on Sunday afternoon, taking down a previously undefeated Creighton, 95-81, to advance to the championship game of the Paradise Jam. 

Here’s how it all went down. 

David Roddy has put on a show in the early stages of the 2021-22 season and continued his impressive run in this one. Colorado State’s Swiss Army Knife dropped 30 points and 10 rebounds in the opening win over Bradley and followed it up with a career-high 36 points against Creighton on Sunday. The guard/forward was insanely hot from deep and consistently knocked down open jump shots against a Blue Jays defense that basically dared him to shoot.

In total Roddy finished 7-of-10 from 3-point range and 13-of-120 from the floor on a day where he looked like an All-American. Over the last two games the versatile star has scored 66 points and has really carried the Green & Gold in a pair of impressive wins. 

Along with Roddy, it was a nice shooting performance for the whole team. Dischon Thomas knocked down five from deep (5-of-8) in a 21 point game. Isaiah Stevens quietly had a double-double with 17 points and 11 assists. And as a team CSU was able to set a Paradise Jam record with 20 made threes (20-of-34). The 59 percent shooting performance from 3-point range was by far CSU’s best of the young season. What’s more, seven different individuals contributed to the effort so while Roddy was the star of the show and ‘DT” came up clutch throughout the game, it truly was a team effort in the win. 

As a team CSU shot 54 percent from the floor and really did a nice job of working the basketball around the perimeter, playing inside-out and converting on the quality looks they were able to create. If the Rams can play like this consistently it’s only going to be a matter of time before the Green & Gold end up cracking the top 25, especially if they can perform at such a high level against top competition like the Blue Jays. 

CSU will face the winner of Northeastern versus. Southern Illinois in Monday’s title game. Although this team is far from accomplishing its ultimate goals, it sure would be nice to bring a trophy back before we even crack conference play.

This Rams team is as talented as any group that’s ever suited up for CSU. I can’t wait to see how they build off of this early success.