When their leading scorer went down, the Rams rose up.
Last week, was coming off the euphoria of winning the opening game of its final Mountain West Tournament via a buzzer-beater. But in the semifinal of the tournament against UNLV in Las Vegas — essentially a home game for the Rebels — CSU’s best player, Lexus Bargesser, suffered a
Instead of folding without Bargesser, the Rams found a way to rally to beat UNLV, and then went on to topple in-state rival Air Force in the tournament championship to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. No. 12 CSU (27-7) takes on No. 5 Michigan State (22-8) in the opening round of on Friday in Norman, Okla.
“To beat UNLV, to beat Air Force with (Bargesser), it just tells me our players were really focused and locked into what had to get done,” Rams head coach Ryun Williams said. “They were not going to leave Vegas without a fight for that trophy.”
That’s what the Rams did en route to their first March Madness berth since 2016, and just their seventh overall appearance in program history.
With a team identity rooted in lockdown defense, the Rams held their three opponents in the Mountain West Tournament to just 53.3 points per game on 30.7% from the field and 20.3% from 3. That included stifling Air Force in the championship, as the Falcons scored only 42 points, including just 16 in the second half.
On the season, the Rams rank in both points allowed per game (54.9) and opposing field goal percentage (35.0). And sans Bargesser, the Rams punched their ticket to March Madness thanks to the play of a pair of seniors who have bucked the transfer portal-trend by spending their entire college careers in Fort Collins.
Guards Marta Leimane and Hannah Ronsiek have combined for 237 appearances and 135 starts over their four seasons with CSU as part of four-straight 20-win teams. When Bargesser limped off the floor against UNLV, Leimane — nicknamed the “Latvian Bear” — came off the bench and delivered. She tallied 16 points in 32 minutes, including hitting 4 of 5 from distance, while Ronsiek turned in one of the Rams’ top defensive performances.
“(Leimane) had to really score the ball well against Vegas and was big reason why we won that game,” Williams said. “She accepted a different role and delivered. And then she had to guard (Air Force’s Milahnie) Perry, the leading scorer in the league, the next night. So, whatever we asked (Leimane) to do, she did it.
“Same thing with Hannah in that tournament. She guarded post players. We asked her to sacrifice and be tough and nasty. That was her role, and that’s how we beat Vegas and Air Force because it just made us much more difficult on defense. Whatever we’ve needed, those two players have delivered.”
‘What we’ve been building for’
Both Leimane and Ronsiek said that entering the transfer portal never crossed their minds. Heading into this season, Ronsiek correctly forecast that the Rams would be an elite defensive team, while Leimane said she believed the program’s final year in the Mountain West before moving to the rebuilt Pac-12 in 2026-27 presented a great opportunity to win the conference.
“I settled in really well by my sophomore year here, and I just had a lot of faith in this team and where we could get going forward,” Leimane said. “I thought if I left and disrupted our balance, we might not get where we are right now. Because this was the year that Hannah and I looked at things and thought, ‘This is it — this is what we’ve been building for and the year we can actually win the Mountain West.'”
In addition to Leimane and Ronsiek, sophomore guards Brooke Carlson and Kloe Froebe, redshirt freshman guard McKenna Murphy and senior forward Madelyn Bragg — a transfer from Division II Northern State who in the Mountain West Tournament — will also be key in the Rams’ chances of an upset of Michigan State.
The Spartans boast the 10th-best offense in the country at 83 points per game, meaning the best version of CSU’s defense will have to show up. The Rams also need to take care of the ball, which has been a strength so far this season, considering CSU is ranked the best in the nation with 10.4 turnovers per game.
Should the Rams upend the Spartans, it will be their first March Madness win in and will match the 1998 squad for the biggest NCAA Tournament upset in program history when the No. 12 Rams beat No. 5 Drake 81-75.
“The biggest key is we’ve got to value the basketball and not create offense for (Michigan State),” said. “They’re a very high-powered offensive team, and so that’s critical. You let them get out and really get running, they’re hard to stop.
“We just have to compete on the ball. Rebound extremely well. We’re going against a longer, taller body type than we’ve faced, and probably more physical, but that’s what this time of year is about. We’re going to play the best and we’ve got to elevate our game, and we’re up for that challenge.”
