Rams earn resounding 91-76 win over visiting New Mexico Saturday afternoon

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FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Colorado State led almost wire-to-wire in a 91-76 victory over visiting New Mexico Saturday afternoon in Moby Arena. With their second straight double-digit win, the Rams improved to 8-10 and 2-2 in Mountain West action, while the Lobos fell to 8-8 and 2-2 in the league.

New Mexico took its only lead of the game on a free throw in the opening seconds, but a pair of threes from freshman Adam Thistlewood and a third from redshirt-senior J.D. Paige pushed the Rams out to a 9-1 lead just over two minutes into the contest. The margin shrunk to as few as three twice in the ensuing minutes and then down to four at 22-18 with 12:33 to play in the contest. But CSU answered and steadily built a lead before going into the halftime break up 48-38.

The teams exchanged baskets through the first eight minutes of the final period with the Rams holding an eight-point advantage at 57-49. At that point, the defense clamped down on the Lobos and the offense rolled on a 15-3 run over the next five minutes to blow the game open at 72-52 with 7:29 remaining. The lead never got lower than 14 and grew to as many as 25 with another surge, this one 14-3 in just over a two-minute span to put CSU up by 25, clear the Ram bench and lock up the victory.

CSU outshot visiting UNM, as the Rams connected on 56.1 percent (32-of-57) from the field as compared to just 47.3 percent (26-of-55) for the Lobos, including just 41.4 percent (12-of-29) in the final 20 minutes. The Rams forced 17 Lobo miscues and turned them into a 24-11 advantage in points off turnovers. CSU was also more successful at the charity stripe, making 20-of-25 attempts (80.0 percent), while UNM was just 12-of-19 (63.2 percent).

The Rams had five players in double figures, led by redshirt-junior Hyron Edwards with a season-high 20 points. Thistlewood and redshirt-junior Nico Carvacho each added 16 points, with the latter chipping in eight rebounds. Sophomore Logan Ryan posted a season-high 12 points, hitting all eight of his shots (four field goals, four free throws) in a season-high 20 minutes of play. Paige contributed 14 points, while freshman guard Kendle Moore had eight points and a team season-best nine assists.

STAT OF THE GAME
Attacking UNM's zone defense, the Rams doubled up the Lobos on points in the paint, 44-22.

IN THEIR WORDS
Head Coach Niko Medved
His thoughts on overall game
Just a great performance by our guys here today, really on both ends. It would be hard to ask for more. We came out with a great mindset, played great team defense and offense. We did a nice job of fighting them in the post and our double teams were pretty good. We knew that they had to score that way and that's where they wanted to get the ball. And then I thought we just did a beautiful job attacking the zone early. We kept it simple, got it in the middle, made really good decisions when we got it in there. The evidence is there with 26 assists to nine turnovers. Just really proud of the way our guys played. Logan (Ryan) came in there and gave us a big lift and it was really fun to see.

NOTES
• The Lobos still lead the overall series, 77-47, but CSU is now 34-26 in Fort Collins in the history.
• CSU's 91 points were the third most in a game this year, as the Rams posted their fourth and fifth straight halves of 40 or more points.
• This is the first time since Dec. 5, 2018 against Arkansas that CSU has had five players score in double figures
• The 26 assists for CSU was a season high, while the 56.1 percent from the field is third on the season chart.
• Carvacho moved into fifth on CSU's all-time rebounding list, now with 747 in his career.
• This was the first 10+ point game of Edwards' Division I basketball career.

UP NEXT
• The Rams will have a week off before going on the road to take on Utah State, Sat., Jan. 19 at 7 pm.
• The contest between will be broadcast on the Mountain West Network and streamed on CSURams.com.
• The game will air across the Colorado State Sports Network (along with online at CSURams.com), with Brian Roth and Adam Nigon on the call.
• CSU Sports Network broadcasts can be also accessed on mobile devices through the TuneIn app (free on all Apple, Android, Windows, Blackberry and Amazon Kindle devices) – once downloaded, search "Colorado St. Rams Sports Network" in the app for the games and coaches' show broadcasts.

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