Rams Look to Regroup for Tournament Run

LAS VEGAS – They can't ignore it, pretend it didn't happen.

Colorado State's women's basketball team can't discount the fact it has dropped three consecutive games heading into the Mountain West tournament, either. The loss to Air Force, which started it, hurt. The real sting comes from the fact the Rams had two chances to take one game at New Mexico and wrap up the regular season title and couldn't pull it off.

They don't also have to buy stock in the slide, either. That they definitely will not do as the Rams carry the No. 3 seed into a Monday showdown (9 p.m. MT) with No. 6 Boise State.

"We haven't been in this position, but we've seen where we have come from as far as the past two years. We just played a championship game, and we took it back and appreciated being in that moment," senior guard Jamie Bonnarens said. "We had a meeting after the game, that it was a wake-up call and we can't just roll into this tournament thinking we have it in the bag, because clearly, we have some things to work on still. I think we're all still confident in what we can do, because we have proved it."

The three-game slide dropped Colorado State from leading the Mountain West to third place, sitting at 15-5 overall, 11-5 in conference play. UNLV, a team the Rams split with on the road, slid into the second spot by virtue of playing two more conference games, both wins, to sit at 13-3.

Coach Ryun Williams isn't happy to be entering the tournament the way they are, but he's also not going to let it ruin his mood about his team. He believes four games in seven days coming off a three-week hiatus due to other team's COVID-19 issues, put his team in a bit of a funk.

No more so than when it comes to making baskets.

"I'd be a lot more concerned if we hadn't played solid basketball," Williams said. "Coming off the three-week layoff, then basically going on the road seven out of eight days is a difficult ask. Our kids, they've competed well. Our job now is just to reset. Reset and put our minds in a confident place and go play some good basketball.

"Since the restart, we haven't shot the ball well. I don't know why that is. We've gone against some pretty decent defenses, and Air Force and New Mexico played us tough. We just haven't s hot the ball well for whatever reason."

Here's why he's not overly concerned. The resume of his team tells him the Rams can score, as they spent the year averaging better than 80 points per game until the recent slide. Guard Tori Williams, who has made 53 3-pointers this season, has hit a rough patch. So too has Lore Devos, who was averaging better than 14 points per game before the three-week layoff, but has just 15 points combined in the past four games.

In the two losses at New Mexico, the Rams didn't shoot better than 25 percent from behind the arc in either game, shooting less than 38 percent from the field in both.

Their track record tells them they are more than capable, and Bonnarens said that has to carry them forward, not looking back on the slow nights.

"It's all about shot selection. I think we lean on that a lot," she said. "We're getting our good shots, they're just not falling. Games like that are going to happen, so you can't think about it too much. You have to take the shots you know you can make and that you've taken all year. Eventually, they're going to fall. That's what we keep telling ourselves."

The Rams left Albuquerque after Friday's loss and headed straight to Las Vegas, where they will begin play on Monday after earning a first-round bye. If there is a silver lining with a short time to prepare, the Rams' falling to third gave them a definite opponent, not waiting around to see who wins or loses the game before.

Boise State is a team Colorado State swept on the road earlier in the season, both by comfortable margins. It's a reason to feel good, but not too good. Again, the past three results cannot be swept away without careful thought.

"We had two really good games against them where we played really well in Boise," Williams said. "I think our kids feel really good about the plan we have in place to beat Boise, but we also know that's a very talented bunch. I think all matchups in the tournament are different and difficult."

Just like this feeling the Rams have at the moment. Losing three in a row is not settling. However, it can also be motivating.

They can't do anything absurdly different at this point, and wouldn't want to. They'd just like to get back to normal, and Bonnarens feels the team's attitude is perfectly in place for the tournament to start the season anew.

She went to clichés – all the teams being 0-0 and everyone having to take it one game at a time. Then she went to their mood.

"We're going in confident, but we're going in mainly irritated," she said. "We are very angry right now. We don't want to be overconfident, because clearly anything can happen, but we definitely want to prove what we can do and not just speak it.

"I think it will work. We can't think about the past, we can't think about we've lost three games in a row. We have to go out and think this is our first, and could be, our last game. We just have to play as hard as we can and as well together as we know we can."

Do that, and Williams feels good about the outcome. Three weeks off seemed to have the Rams flat. Three losses may just lift them up to new heights at the most important time of the year.

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Jamie Bonnarens

Lore Devos

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