Rams lead nearly throughout in 85-48 victory over North Carolina Central

Calendar

Show:/

Oct 18

TBA

Women's Basketball

vs South Dakota (Exh.)

Oct 29

6:30 pm

Women's Basketball

vs Colorado Christian (Exh.)

Nov 4

6:00 pm

Women's Basketball

vs Weber State

Nov 9

1:00 pm

Women's Basketball

vs Long Beach State

Nov 13

TBA

Women's Basketball

at Gonzaga

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – The Colorado State women's basketball team rebounded from a loss on Tuesday with a commanding 85-48 victory over the North Carolina Central Eagles on Saturday from Moby Arena.

Three CSU (3-2) players scored in double digits and the Rams controlled the glass with a 53-34 advantage. Freshman Lore Devos corralled eight rebounds and shot 6-of-11 from the floor en route to a team-high 15 points. Sophomore Callie Kaiser added 13 points and seven rebounds in 20 minutes off the bench, while junior Sofie Tryggedsson joined the duo in double-figure scoring with 10 points of her own. Senior Veronika Mirkovic had a career-best nine points, each in the first half, and added eight rebounds. As a team, CSU outscored the Eagles 42-6 in the paint.

North Carolina Central (1-3) made the first basket of the game at the 8:30 mark in the opening quarter, but Tryggedsson made two threes within the next 30 seconds and the Rams never trailed again. The Rams closed the first quarter on a 10-2 run over the final 3:40, taking an 18-10 lead and momentum into the second quarter. Devos opened that period with three baskets by the 5:52 mark, giving the Rams a 14-point lead at 27-13.

The CSU defense held NCCU to 8-of-27 (29.6 percent) shooting in the first half, as the Rams maintained that lead at halftime with a 38-24 edge. The Rams tightened up on defense even more from that point, forcing the Eagles into 20.8 percent (5-of-24) shooting in the second half. That defense produced 13 second-half turnovers by NCCU, and translated to just as many CSU points off turnovers. Combined with improved shooting in the second half (48.6 percent compared to 34.3 percent in the first half), the Rams grew their lead to 56-31 after three quarters before the final margin of victory.

IN THEIR WORDS
Colorado State head coach Ryun Williams
"That was a good team win. It's great to get a lot of kids on the floor and get some game minutes, because that's how kids learn. The best and quickest way is to get them on the floor. I thought as the game went on, we started to play better, mainly offensively, and I thought defensively pretty solid throughout tonight. Offensively, it just took us a little while to get our rhythm, find our stride so to speak and find some consistency on that end. It was good. We played zone tonight, so it was good to get some game minutes playing that defense. Our kids did a nice job of executing that plan. I thought we did a nice job of rebounding in the zone."

On trying different starting lineups:
"We will probably have a lot of different starting lineups throughout the year, I'd imagine. We're just trying to look at two things. The first group (the starters) is that we're looking to get a spark in there and find some easier baskets, but also some solid defensive play off the bench, which Stine (Austgulen) provides (tonight). We're just trying to shuffle the deck a little bit and see what we get. That's what this early season's all about."

On the Rams' rebounding effort:
"I thought that our kids that were going to the o-glass (offensive glass) were really committed to that and kept a lot of balls alive. We got some second chance points and got fouled. I thought that was just good energy basketball. We have to be better shooting the basketball. I'm not going to sugarcoat it - we have good shooters that need to shoot the ball better. That's the consistency (we're looking for) - we're still trying to hit our stride offensively, mainly shooting the ball. I have no problem with the shots we're shooting at all. We're finding the right kids at the right time. We just need to start making some threes, and when we do, I think we have a little bit of everything."

Junior guard Sofie Tryggedsson
On the importance of many different players contributing to this team:
"I think that if we want to go far, we need everyone to play and be committed. It's important for us to spread out our minutes. Callie (Kaiser) had a really good game today. We need that kind of energy from our teammates."

NOTES
- Veronika Mirkovic's nine points topped her previous career best of eight points. Mirkovic had scored eight points twice, most recently against Oklahoma on Nov. 21.
- Freshman guard Lore Devos' eight rebounds are a new season/career high.
- The Rams' bench exceeded 40 points for the second time this season with 45 on Saturday. The Rams' bench had 49 against Eastern New Mexico on Nov. 16.

UP NEXT
The Colorado State women's basketball team will remain in the state of Colorado for its first road game of the year, a contest against the Denver Pioneers on Thursday, Nov. 30. The matchup is set to tip-off at 7 p.m. MT from Magness Arena.

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Recent Results