Larimer News

LAS VEGAS – After 20 minutes with a hard defensive tone, Colorado State coach Niko Medved looked down the court at the opposite sideline and smiled at his counterpart, Brian Dutcher of San Diego State. Shortly before the start of the second half, they came together at midcourt.

It was there they decided, Dutcher said, that no matter what decisions either of them made, it wouldn't matter. The month of March belongs to the players.

"I just said, 'Dutch, listen, both of us can just walk out of here right now and it won't change what's about to happen here in the second half of this game,'" Medved said, laughing. "Both teams were prepared. They knew what they had to do. It was going to come down to one team making more plays than the other."

A fight to the finish requires landing the final blow to come out on top.

The Rams couldn't land it in Thursday's quarterfinal round of the Mountain West Tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center, leaving No. 20 San Diego State a 64-61 victor and advancing to the semifinals. Both team made mistakes at times which felt critical. Both squads would find opportunities to cover them up, which the Aztecs did at a better clip.

With 16 seconds remaining, SDSU's Matt Bradley made a pair of free throws for a 62-59 edge, one CSU guard Isaiah Stevens chipped at with a full-court run to a layup. The Rams fouled on the inbound, sending the Aztecs' Nathan Mensah to the line, where, with 10 seconds remaining, he made one.

The Rams had a chance after grabbing the rebound on the miss of the second attempt, and a day after hitting the game winner in a victory over Fresno State, Stevens drove and had a look at a bucket to tie.

It just didn't fall. Patrick Cartier – a day after he had no rebounds – snared the miss for his seventh of the day, but his put-back attempt was blocked by Mensah.

"It just rimmed in and out," Stevens said of his final attempt. "I thought it was down, but that's the way the game goes sometimes."

Medved had the same reaction to the shot. He's put the ball in Stevens' hands many times in games with the same stakes. He's seen the senior guard make a lot of them and has seen him miss a few.

And he'd do it again.

"He got to his spot, and I was literally right behind it, and when he let it go, I thought, 'that's down,'" Medved said. "It was kind of down, but tonight it didn't, but he made a lot of those in his career. You just live with the result and that's what it was."

Colorado State came out in a flash, scoring the first eight points of the game. San Diego State responded with the next seven, setting the stage for a game where neither team was able to run and hide. It was a war of wills, with uncontested shots scarce and even small scoring runs deemed extremely valuable.

Points were going to be valuable with a 27-25 SDSU advantage at halftime

"Against a team like this, you just take whatever you can get," CSU forward John Tonje said. "You kind gotta pick and choose what shots you're going to take, but once you get an open one, you have to take it."

Tonje found them early, scoring 11 of his 17 in short order as he keyed the first run. The counter was Stevens started 0-of-8 from the field and didn't score in the first half. He would find his way late, finishing with 16 and eight assists, while Cartier closed with 12 and Jalen Lake hit some key shots to finish with 10.

It was a game where Colorado State – against a team with the best defensive reputation – forced 13 turnovers and turned them into 14 points. The battle in the paint with the larger, longer Aztecs was even at 30 each side.

The Rams struggled from behind the arc all game (5-of-17), but back-to-back treys from Lake and Stevens cut a deficit into a 59-58 lead with 1:42 remaining.

The game featured nine ties and 11 lead changes, leaving the Rams in front for 18:30. But that point was the final time the Rams would lead.

For a squad which struggled to find an identity through injuries forcing change and disrupting continuity, the season goal remained the same for Medved – get this team, whatever it looked like – to be the best version of itself at the end.

The loss left them all deflated, but Medved had no argument – short of a ball finding the net – with the effort at the close.

"I think we've been fighting to get continuity all year and whether or not in practice. I thought towards the end all season, we started to get better and better," he said. "I said today is the day we're gong to put our best out there, and you know what? I don't have any beef with that. I thought we did. (SDSU) is a terrific team, and we've had two of these with this team that have gone right down to the wire, just a couple of plays away. Maybe that changes the trajectory of things.

"I'll say this about this group: The only people who really know are the guys who were there every day fighting through it. I think to answer your question, when I really reflect on that, I think they did do that. I think they came out and played their best down the stretch and would be hard for me to ask any more." 

Original source can be found here.