FORT COLLINS — If you’re going to play with shortcomings in depth and size, it helps to be able to do the one essential thing to winning basketball games:
Shoot.
No other men’s team in the Mountain West shoots it better than Colorado State.
The Rams lead the conference in shooting percentage and free-throw percentage and are fifth nationally in 3-point shooting. Two of the three were on display in large doses Tuesday night in CSU’s 66-55 victory over Boise State at Moby Arena.
It’s the eighth consecutive win for the upwardly mobile Rams (13-4, 2-0 MW), who are nearly unbeatable at home (9-1) and are climbing the RPI chart (No. 22 this week) like a hit single on the Billboard chart.
With each victory, the Rams are making a serious bid toward staking a claim to be considered as one of the Mountain West’s top-tier teams.
Dorian Green was the catalyst for a CSU team that shot 9-of-16 on 3-pointers against the Broncos. Green finished with a game-high 20 points, 12 coming in the first half.
CSU guard Kaipo Sabas, a walk-on who was placed on scholarship before the game, finished with 13 points and five rebounds.
The Rams sprinted to a 22-9 lead and never really looked back. Seven of their 10 first-half field goals came from behind the 3-point arc. CSU also hit 7-of-8 free throws in the first half, but the charity stripe became unkind as the game wore on. Boise State provided CSU a few moments of trepidation early in the second half, but couldn’t sustain success. The Rams led by 17 in the second half and cruised to the victory.
The backdrop of it all is inclusion among the elite teams in the Mountain West, which right now is the power trio of San Diego State, Nevada-Las Vegas and New Mexico. CSU plays archrival Wyoming on Saturday before facing those three in consecutive games the following week.
Christopher Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
