Salt Lake City – Sean Morris didn’t know where he was on the floor Wednesday night when he launched a 3-pointer with 15 seconds left to force overtime at Utah. He tied the game and hit the first two 3-pointers of OT to lead the Rams to a 69-61 win and snap their Mountain West Conference road losing streak at 20 games.
CSU’s first win since Jan. 14 – also against Utah – halted a seven-game losing streak and allowed the Rams (13-11, 2-9 MWC) to escape a conference cellar tie with TCU.
“I was thinking, ‘I hope this goes in,”‘ Morris said in a postgame radio show. “It’s great to get a win on the road, especially at Utah. We’re set to make a run now.”
The Rams will need a run in the final five games to avoid playing a preliminary game to advance to the full MWC Tournament bracket.
Morris led with 17 points, including a 5-for-6 effort behind the arc. He didn’t even attend the Rams’ last home game, when he stayed home with the flu.
“We finally got some stops there. They were kind of ramming it down our throats,” Colorado State coach Dale Layer said. “But it all culminated with Sean’s big 3 there to put it into overtime, and that gave us some momentum and some juice to finish the job.”
With a week off to prepare for Utah, CSU tried to go back to defensive basics that helped it to an 11-2 nonleague start prior to the collapse in league play.
Utah was the last place that CSU won a regular-season, conference road game, on March 6, 2003. Morris’ older brother Micheal hit the game-winner in that contest.
COLORADO ST. (13-11, 2-9 MWC)
Robinson 2-5 2-5 6, Smith 5-11 5-6 15, Harrison 3-5 1-3 7, Lewis 2-8 4-5 8, Gilling 3-3 0-0 8, S. Morris 6-8 0-0 17, Patterson 1-1 1-2 4, Creason 1-2 0-0 2, M. Morris 1-4 0-0 2. Totals 24-47 13-21 69.
UTAH (12-11, 5-7)
Markson 3-6 3-4 10, Green 0-4 0-0 0, Nevill 5-10 8-9 18, Bryant 6-14 1-2 18, Grant 0-4 0-0 0, Borha 0-3 0-0 0, Drisdom 0-0 0-0 0, Jackson 0-0 0-2 0, Johns 0-1 0-0 0, Langvad 5-7 2-2 15. Totals 19-49 14-19 61.
Halftime – Tied 23-23. Regulation – Tied 55-55. 3-point goals – Colorado St. 8-14 (S. Morris 5-6, Gilling 2-2, Patterson 1-1, Robinson 0-1, M. Morris 0-1, Lewis 0-3), Utah 9-22 (Bryant 5-9, Langvad 3-4, Markson 1-2, Grant 0-1, Borha 0-2, Green 0-4). Fouled out – Smith. Rebounds – Colorado St. 27 (Smith 8), Utah 33 (Nevill 9). Assists – Colorado St. 14 (Lewis 5), Utah 13 (Bryant 3). Total fouls – Colorado St. 19, Utah 17. A – 10,978.
