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Colorado State avenged last season’s loss to Northern Colorado by defeating the Bears 81-64 Saturday afternoon at Moby Arena. Colorado State (8-2, 0-0) only led by one at halftime, 34-33, but came storming out of the gates in the second half outscoring Northern Colorado (3-6, 0-0) 28-12 in the first 10 minutes of the half. The Rams never looked back on their way to their eighth win of the season.
‘We were ready to play but they went toe-to-toe with us in the first half. Simple as that’ said Rams head coach Larry Eustachy after the game who is now three wins shy of 500 for his career. ‘This team is getting better and better.’
Colorado State had to improve as a team in this game as senior forward and leading scorer Emmanuel Omagbo got himself into early foul trouble and sat nearly the entire first half. Same for junior forward Che Bob who in his second start of the season and coming off of a career scoring high on Tuesday, saw his minutes and points cut due to early foul trouble.
The team did welcome back senior guard Gian Clavell who was reinstated to the program only yesterday. ‘It really helps this team because it needs maturity’ Eustachy said of Clavell. Clavell found his way onto the court with 13 minutes left in the first half. His floor presence and passing had an impact on the young team as he created chances for his teammates to score. His shooting touch took a while to find but once he found it, he poured in 15 points. 13 of those coming in the second half.
Colorado State junior guard Devocio Butler lead all scorers with 19 points and redshirt freshman Nico Carvacho dropped in 13 points to go along with his game high 11 rebounds.
The Rams dominated the Bears on the glass pulling down 50 rebounds to the Bears 35. This was helped greatly by Northern Colorado’s small frontline and propensity to shoot three pointers. Northern Colorado came into the game attempting over 200 three pointers on the season but the Colorado State defense held Northern Colorado to 29% (10-34) from behind the arc.
Colorado State heads to Denver for their next game as they take on the Big 12’s Kansas State Wildcats at the Pepsi Center. Tip off is scheduled for 1pm MST at and can be seen on CBS Sports Network.