FORT COLLINS, Colo.—Wes Eikmeier scored a career-high 17 points to lead Colorado State to a 75-61 victory over Northern Colorado on Monday night.
Travis Franklin added 16 points on 12-of-15 shooting for the Rams (5-3), who have beaten the Bears nine consecutive times at home. Andy Ogide had 13 points and Dorian Green 11.
Devon Beitzel had a season-high 29 points for Northern Colorado (4-6) which has won only twice in Fort Collins since the 1935-36 season when both programs were members of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
Chris Kaba added 11 points for the Bears, who lost their third in a row.
Beitzel had 15 points at halftime, but Northern Colorado shot 33 percent from the field, had 10 turnovers and trailed 37-26.
Colorado State went on a 9-0 run early in the second half, capped by Franklin’s driving layup to push its lead to 50-31. Beitzel began finding the range again, scoring 10 points over a three-minute stretch to get Northern Colorado to within 61-54 with 7:58 left.
The lead was 67-59 after Eikmeier and Beitzel exchanged driving layups. The Rams then got a baseline jumper from Greg Smith and four free throws to pull ahead 73-59 with 3:17 to go. The Bears failed to score again after Beitzel’s basket with 2:20 remaining.
Colorado State finished 27 of 39 from the free-throw line.
The Rams took an early 19-10 lead as the Bears started just 4 of 16 from the field. Soon after Colorado State took advantage of two turnovers by extending its lead to 24-12 on a 3-pointer by Adam Nigon and a layup by Eikmeier.
Eikmeier later hit a 3 to give Colorado State its largest lead of the half, 34-19. Beitzel countered with five points over the remaining 1:50 to keep Northern Colorado within striking distance.
