Rams Back for Mountain West Opener at Moby

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – An eight-day break in between games turned into 15 days for the Rams, but that ends Tuesday when the Rams host Boise State for the Mountain West season opener at 6 p.m. MT inside of Moby Arena.

The extended seven days was tacked on after CSU had to cancel the Dec. 21^st contest at Northern Illinois due to COVID complications. Unfortunately, sports around the country are experiencing the same déjà vu feeling of here we go again with that subject. Last season, CSU had a 19-day holiday break and then two unplanned breaks of 10 days and 20 days due to COVID complications in other programs. The Rams went the whole season without succumbing to a COVID breakout within the program.

"We are very excited to get back to competing," head coach Ryun Williams said about the extended holiday break and the team's bout with COVID. "Unfortunately, that last game before the holiday break was cancelled, but the silver lining was that it did provide our program more time to unwind from the school semester and get healthy. However, we need to ramp it back up because it is now Mountain West play, and no games can get wasted on not being ready."

Boise State (4-7) was picked to finish sixth in the Mountain West. CSU swept BS in the 2020-21 regular season for the first time since the 2015-16 campaign and the wins also halted Boise's seven-game win streak in the series. However in the MW quarterfinals, the six-seeded Broncos upset No. 3 CSU, ending the Rams' season. Only six student-athletes returned from that squad though and seven departed, including their top three scorers plus two of the team's top three rebounders.

"First up is Boise State who are perennial contenders in the league," Williams said. "The Broncos could easily be 7-4 as they have three one-score defeats that could have gone the other way. They also have a ranked loss in there too, so they are eager to get their conference schedule off on the right foot like us."

RAMS NOTEBOOK

Last Time Out
• The Rams overcame a slow start against sibling CSU Pueblo before breezing past the Thunderwolves for a 64-45 win. Kendyll Kinzer had her best game thus far with 15 points on five threes - both season highs - plus nine rebounds and four blocks in 39 minutes - all career-bests. McKenna Hofschild tallied 11 assists and 10 points for CSU's first assist-point double-double since Ellen Nystrom (1/21/17). Hofschild later was named MW Player of the Week again.

What to Watch for vs. Boise State?
• CSU Scoring Defense (52.2; #1 in MW) vs. BS Scoring Offense (61.0; #10 in MW)
• CSU Field Goal % (.405; #3 in MW) vs. BS Defensive FG% (.374; #2 in MW)
• CSU Fewest Fouls (109; #2 in MW) vs. BS Free Throw Att. (110; #4 in MW)
• CSU Turnovers Per Game (10.0; #1 in NCAA) vs. BS Steals/G (6.0, #10 in MW)

Scouting Report on Boise State
• Boise State is second in the Mountain West in assists per game (15.6), field goal percentage defense (37.4) and rebounding margin (+5.0).
• Sophomore 6-foot-1 forward Elodie Lalottle leads the Broncos in scoring and rebounding en route to five double-doubles. Last season, CSU kept her to six points and 12 rebounds in three games, but she averaged just 12.8 minutes on the floor compared to this year's 23.4 mpg.
• Of the Broncos' seven losses, three were one-score defeats (at Pepperdine, vs. Seattle, vs. LaTech).
• Kaitlin Burgess, one of BS' newcomers, played with Petra Farkas at College of Southern Idaho in 2019-20.
• The Broncos have won five-straight Mountain West openers.
• Freshman Trista Hull was just named MW Freshman of the Week after making her first career start against Warner Pacific and finishing with 14 points. She added five rebounds, four assists and a blocked shot.

Defense Wins Games
• Outside of the Louisville game, the Rams have held all their opponents to 60 points or less. Additionally, eight opponents have been under 35% shooting. CSU boasts the conference's No. 1 scoring defense (52.2 ppg) that checks in at No. 16 nationally. The Rams are No. 1 in field goal defense (33.3%) for the Mountain West that is No. 14 in NCAA.

Fourth Quarter Clamps
• Specifically, the Ram defense is pinching their opponents in the final quarter. Opponents are 45-of-159 shooting in the final 10 minutes for a 28.3% clip. Harvard was just 1 for 21 and CSU-Pueblo 2 for 14. Only four schools have made more than five shots in the quarter including; UTSA (6-17;35.3%), UoL (5-13; .385), WSU (8-18, .444) and LU (9-17;.529).

Protecting the Rock Better than ALL
• The Rams lead the NCAA in turnovers per game at 10.0. CSU's assist to turnover ratio is also fifth in the country at 1.49. Last season, CSU finished second and fifth, respectively, in those two categories. This season the Rams have had the same or less turnovers than their opponent in eight of 10 games. Also, CSU has only four games with double-digit turnovers (16 vs ORU; 10 vs. HU; 13 vs. WSU; 11 vs. CSU-P).

Murphy on the Glass
• Although CSU holds a negative rebounding margin and is eighth in MW's rebounding defense, Karly Murphy is third in the MW in boards per game (8.6) and total rebounds (86). She is on pace to have 249 rebounds, which would shatter her career best for a season. If she got close to that number she would be flirting with the top 10 list that starts at 248.

From the Line
• Last season, Ryun Williams' squad ranked 19th in the nation in free-throw percentage at 76.3%, which also went down as the second-best percentage in CSU history. Picking up where they left off, CSU is 94 for 116 (81.0%) from the charity strike thus far, ranking 3rd in NCAA. Karly Murphy is a nearly perfect 20-of-22, while McKenna Hofschild and Upe Atosu have a collective 56 FTA with only seven misses.

Mountain West Player of the Week(s)
• Dec. 12, 2021: McKenna Hofschild. Between the two games (WSU, CSUP), the guard averaged 16.5 points, eight assists and three rebounds per game. Against Weber State, she dropped 23 points for her second 20+ scoring game of the season and dished out five assists. Recording her first-ever double double, she scored 10 points and passed out 11 assists versus CSU Pueblo for the first point-assist double double since Ellen Nystrom (1/21/17).

• Dec. 6, 2021: Karly Murphy. One thing constant at the Arizona State Classic was the play from Murphy. She notched her third double-double of the season against HU, tallying 12 points and 13 rebounds with the latter tying her season-high. Narrowly missing another double-double against UTSA, she had a team-high 16 points with nine rebounds. In both games, she shot an efficient 50% from the field and was 4-of-6 from the free throw line.

• Nov. 22, 2021: McKenna Hofschild. The guard averaged 19 points per game and led CSU to three wins in the week before Thanksgiving. She dropped a career-best 27 on Denver. Collectively, she scored 57 points for her second-best three-game total in her career after 61 points in a trio of games last season that coincidentally earned her MW PoW Week honors (1/11/21) too.

At the Helm
• A two-time Mountain West Coach of the Year and the winningest coach in program history, Ryun Williams enters his 10th season at the helm of the Colorado State women's basketball program in 2021-22. CSU's 5-0 start marked the first since the 2000-01 campaign. The win over CSU Pueblo made it the seventh time the program has started 9-1. For Williams it is his second such start, joining the 2015-16 team that finished 31-2 overall, winning the MW outright and advancing to the NCAA Tournament. Williams is the second coach to have multiple 9-1 starts. Other 9-1 starts and its head coaches include Greg Williams ('96-97) and Tom Collen ('97-98, '98-99, '00-01 and '01-02).

Series History: Colorado State – Boise State
Overall: CSU trails 11-13
In Fort Collins: BS, 5-4
In Boise: CSU, 7-4
Neutral: BS, 4-0
Current Streak: BS, 1
Last: BS 78, CSU 65 (3/8/21) at MWC
Largest CSU Victory: 32
Largest CSU Defeat: 19
More on the matchup on pg. 8 of the Game Notes

A Colorado State Tuesday Win Would Mean…
• The Rams conclude the 2021 portion of the season at 10-1 and with a MW leading five-game win streak.

How to Follow Along
Attached: Game Notes.
Live Stats: http://csura.ms/WBBStats
Live Stream: http://csura.ms/Live
Radio: KARS 102.9 FM | https://csura.ms/Listen

For More on Colorado State Women's Basketball follow: Twitter – CSUWBasketball | Instagram – csuwbasketball | Facebook – @CSUWBasketball

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