LAS VEGAS — Not enough.
David Roddy, Isaiah Stevens and Chandler Jacobs combined for 52 points on 20-of-32 shooting in the Mountain West Conference semifinals Friday night.
The problem was that outside of that trio, everyone else on the floor for No. 23 Colorado State combined to make a total of two baskets. The Rams also missed half of their free throw attempts (8-of-16) and allowed far too many second-chance opportunities in a 63-58 loss to San Diego State at the Thomas and Mack Center.
“Tough loss. It was a really hard-fought game,” Niko Medved said postgame. “Give San Diego State a lot of credit. They’re a tough team and really, really battled.”
Going up against one of the nation’s most elite defenses, the Rams came out of the gate hot and actually hit their first six field goal attempts of the game. For a moment it felt like the Rams might even pour it on the Aztecs in this one. Unfortunately, though, as they tend to do, SDSU adjusted on the defensive end, tightened things up and proceeded to contain CSU to just 4-of-16 shooting for the rest of the half.
Along with their typical tenacity on the defensive side, the Aztecs also benefited from a diverse scoring output, as nine different individuals scored for Brian Dutcher’s squad in the victory. The Rams actually contained Matt Bradley to just 5 points — which was a far cry from his first two performances against the Green & Gold — other guys just happened to step up for SDSU.
Trey Pulliam hit some big shots in a 11-point night, Adam Seiko (10 points) and Nathan Mensah (9 points) were able to contribute as well. It was a humbling reminder to the rest of the Mountain West that while other teams may be extremely talented right now , there’s a reason that the Aztecs have been able to dominate the conference tournament for the last decade. That’s a damn good program.
To CSU’s credit, after going down 9 at halftime and trailing by as much as 11 in the second half, the Rams fought like hell and refused to lay down without striking back. Every time the Aztecs would try to go for the knockout, one of Stevens, Roddy or Jacobs would come right back with a counter.
“I thought our guys battled like crazy,” Medved said. The Rams head coach, now in his fourth season, continued by explaining that although they didn’t necessarily have it for all 40 minutes, he really loved the way that his group responded over the final 15.
The challenging part was just that every time CSU cut the deficit to two scores, they couldn’t seem to capitalize and get over the hump. The Rams would get close but then there would always be an untimely turnover or miscue that prevented them from taking back the game on offense. And on defense, they simply didn’t get enough stops over the final few minutes. “We just couldn’t get a stop in a 2-point game when we needed it,” Medved said.
With Friday’s loss to SDSU, the dream of winning a conference championship may be dead this season but after going 25-5 it’s safe to assume that CSU will be safely in the NCAA Tournament field. So while it may sting to fall short of the Mountain West crown, the silver lining of the situation is that the best is still yet to come.
“This one is going to sting and it should,” Medved said. “These guys are competitive and we wanted to win but when we wake up tomorrow, we’re going to let this one go. And we’re going to turn our attention to Sunday. Sunday is going to be a special day. This team has had a phenomenal season and it’s going to get a chance to play on the biggest stage at the NCAA Tournament. And they’ve earned that.”
