FORT COLLINS — Beginning Tuesday, the games will be more significant for the No. 15 Colorado State men’s basketball team.
Friday night’s game against Adams State at Moby Arena was all about fine-tuning ahead of the Rams’ Mountain West Conference opener against New Mexico.
CSU had little trouble against the Division-II Grizzlies, rolling to a 106-61 victory to close out one of the program’s most successful nonconference slates in recent history.
With the win, the Rams improved to 12-1, defeating their fifth in-state foe this season as part of that mark. The Grizzlies suffered the same fate as Northern Colorado, Colorado, Denver and CSU-Pueblo.
“If you would have told me with the schedule we put together that we’d be 12-1, that’s really a terrific feat for these guys,” CSU head coach Niko Medved said. “We’ve earned the position that we’re in. We put ourselves out there with the schedule that we made. The guys came in. They’ve worked their tails off. They’ve been connected. They’ve met the challenge and they put themselves in a great position.”
CSU also welcomed back guard Jalen Lake, who had been out for several games with a broken finger. He scored four of the Rams’ first seven points and was one of four Rams with nine points at halftime.
Twelve players scored for the Rams, seven of them in double figures.
Isaiah Stevens and Patrick Cartier led the Rams with 13 points each. Lake had 12; Nique Clifford and Joe Palmer each had 11; and Joel Scott and Javonte Johnson each added 10. Stevens, who was recognized before the game for becoming CSU’s all-time leading scorer last Saturday against Loyola Marymount, also had seven assists.
“It felt great being out there,” Lake said. “It was tough being out, but I thought it was great to see guys step up while I was out and really step up to the plate. I thought they really played hard and it was great being back out there. The win felt good.”
The Grizzlies were able to keep the game close for the first few minutes. A pair of free throws by Adams State got it within two points at 12-10 with 15 minutes, 27 seconds left in the first half, but that would be as close as it would get.
A layup by Scott on CSU’s next possession started a 19-4 run, including an 11-0 spurt, that gave the Rams a 31-14 lead with 10:21 left in the first half.
CSU was deadly from beyond the arc in the opening period, making 11 of 17 from long range. Over the same stretch, Adams State was 1 for 5.
The Grizzlies were able to cut the CSU lead down to 13 at 40-27 with 5:13 left in the first half, but the Rams answered with a 16-8 run to close the first half. A layup by Clifford with 30 seconds left gave CSU its largest lead of the first 20 minutes at 56-33.
CSU shot a sizzling 68.8% from the field in the first half, including a 64.7% clip from long range. Adams State shot 50% from the field and 20% from behind the 3-point line.
The 56 first-half points tied for the most in a half for the Rams during Medved’s tenure in Fort Collins, and the 20 assists the Rams had at the break were the most for the program during that time.
Stevens, Clifford, Lake and Palmer each had nine points at the break. Cartier had eight.
“This was a big game for me,” Palmer, who had a couple of early 3-pointers, said. “I was kind of struggling these past few games. It was good to kind of have those threes go in right away.”
The second half was more of the same for the Rams. Adams State scored the first four points after halftime, but the Rams responded with a 9-1 run to take their largest lead of the game at 65-40 with 16:49 remaining in the game.
From there, the Rams continued to increase their lead. CSU went ahead by 31 points at 80-49 on a jumper by Javonte Johnson with 9:19 left. They took a 41-point lead at 90-49 on a jumper by Scott with 6:56 remaining.
The Rams hit the century mark on a layup by Kyan Evans, giving CSU a 100-55 lead with 3:41 left. A layup by Evans with 1:04 remaining gave the Rams their 106th point, their highest point total of the season.
CSU ended up shooting 63.1% from the field in the game and made 14 of 28 3-pointers. Every player on the Rams’ bench not only got some minutes, but all but one scored at least two points.
Additionally, the Rams had 33 assists on 41 made field goals.
“I think this team, they know they can beat anyone and they have the respect to know that they can get beat any night, too,” Medved said. “We’ve been a really good offensive team and I think it starts with, yeah somebody can get 40, but they’re not coming in trying to get 40. They’re coming in trying to make the right play. I think that’s where it starts.”
The Rams’ conference opener Tuesday at Moby Arena against the Lobos will tip off at 8:30 p.m.
