Colorado State University Athletics
Colorado State
Denver
Rams Hold Off Pesky Pioneers in Men's Hoops
11/26/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 26, 2005
Denver, Colo. - Colorado State rallied from a seven-point deficit and turned the tables in the second half as the Rams defeated Denver 64-58 in the Colorado Classic Saturday night in Denver's Pepsi Center.
Following a 26-26 draw in the first half of play, Denver jumped out to an 11-4 run to take a 37-30 lead before a Ram trio of sophomores, Jason Smith, Stuart Creason and Sean Morris, all contributed to a 10-0 CSU run to turn the tables and give the Rams a 40-37 advantage.
Denver would briefly regain the lead at 41-40 but Colorado State a 10-2 run to take the lead by seven with 10:26 to play.
DU closed the gap to one point with under five minutes to play but a basket and two free throws by point guard Cory Lewis bumped the Ram advantage to five with under four left on the clock.
CSU increased its lead to eight with less than 30 seconds to go but a pair of Yemi Nicholson buckets would close the gap to four points with 14 ticks left on the clock before Sean Morris sealed the victory with a pair of charity shots.
Jason Smith continued to be stellar for Colorado State with his second consecutive double-double with 22 points and 13 rebounds. Freshman Stephan Gilling registered his top night as a Ram as well with 11 points on the night.
Yemi Nicholson led the Pioneers with 22 points and 17 rebounds while going 8-of-9 from the foul line.
CSU had the shooting advantage hitting 25-of-54 from the floor for a 46.3 percent night while DU was 17-of-50 for 34 percent. Denver's advantage in the game came from the foul stripe hitting 20-of-24 free shots (83.3 percent) compared to CSU's 10-of-19 night.
Colorado State (4-0) will return to Fort Collins to face Auburn Monday night in Moby Arena. Tipoff for the game is 7 p.m. Tickets for the event may be purchased at the CSU ticket office or by calling 1-800-491-RAMS or by logging on to CSURams.com.
