LARAMIE — Coming off of a tough loss at home to Utah State, Saturday’s matinee against the University of Wyoming was an opportunity for the Rams to get back on track and keep pace with the rest of the top half of the league.
After an extremely slow start, it appeared that the Rams were going to fall to the last-place Cowboys on the road for a second consecutive season. Wyoming led by as much as 19 in the second half and owned all of the momentum with about 14 minutes left in the game.
Coming out of a CSU timeout with 14:06 to go, something changed for the Rams, though. From the 14:06 mark to 12:07, the Rams went on a 9-0 run, cutting the Pokes’ lead to 10 (54-44).
“I thought that was huge,” head coach Niko Medved said postgame. “I kept thinking we were going to make a run and we did.”
From there, CSU outscored Wyoming 33-16 over the final 12 minutes and even managed to close the game on a 15-0 run. What’s more, the Rams held the Cowboys to just one of their final 11 attempts from the floor and managed to keep the Pokes off the scoreboard over the final 4:19 to secure a 77-70 win.
“Man, these guys just showed some grit,” Medved said.
Medved explained that he felt like the Rams were a little too hesitant on offense and allowed Wyoming to dictate how physical the game was going to be played — particularly in the first half.
Even so, Medved said CSU’s confidence never wavered and the Rams kept the mindset that they could chip away at the game one possession at a time. After stringing together some stops on defense and attacking the Pokes in transition, eventually it made enough of a difference down the stretch to steal the win.
“I believe we ended the game on a 15-0 run,” Medved said.”Guys made winning plays and that’s just what this team has been about all year. It doesn’t matter how you do it — to find a way to come up here, when Wyoming was playing really well, and steal a road win like that was just awesome.”
“We didn’t have much energy initially,” Isaiah Stevens added. “It seemed like we were winded and trying to catch our breath just a little bit. But once we were able to really turn it on, we really got rolling.”
Stevens struggled from the floor for much of the game. The freshman point guard only made four of his 16 field goal attempts and uncharacteristically led CSU with four turnovers to boot. As a team, the Rams turned the ball over nearly twice as many times as the Cowboys and generally looked out of sync on offense for over 30 minutes of gameplay.
That said, when the game was truly on the line, Stevens and his teammates were able to do just enough to sneak out of Cowboy country with a ‘W’.
The biggest moment came with 39 seconds left when senior guard Kris Martin drilled a corner 3 to give the Rams a slim 72-70 lead — one they would ultimately hold onto through the final whistle.
“We’ve been so resilient and have shown grit all season,” Martin said. “Even when we were down 19, we still had a chance to win this game… I work on my game every day. I shoot the ball every day so making those big shots is not a surprise to me.”
With yet another road victory in their pocket, the Rams will continue to battle for a top 3 seed in the Mountain West Tournament.
“It’s big,” Medved said of the win. “I think it’s just building on who we are and building that character,” Medved said. “We’ve gotta focus on just us continuing to play better but it’s a huge win. It’s always fun to win here in Wyoming.”
