Rivera Nails Game-Winner in Season Opener

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FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Considering the offseason, being down 11 at half, then going to an 11-point lead, then finding the game tied with 7.3 seconds remaining, Monday's season opening scenario wasn't the most adversity Niko Medved's team has faced.

And with the game which seemed at hand, Colorado State went with a familiar first name to drive the point home, with Isaiah Rivera hitting a fadeaway basket off the drive for a 65-63 win over Gardner-Webb at Moby Arena.

If adversity truly does build character, the Rams are surely dripping in it by now.

"Those guys, I know who they are because I see them every day," Medved said. "They really responded at halftime. That just did not look at all like the team we see every day, and I think we saw that in the second half. They did a great job of being poised. Again, I think there's a lot of teachable moments there late in that game that we'll get better from, but we have some new guys out there too in those situations, learning how to play that.

"Like we say, there's only one way to get experience, and that's to get experience. They got some experience tonight."

Some new people grabbed some on the night. And some old faces had new experiences themselves as roles are changing with point guard Isaiah Stevens out for a spell and Josiah Strong still not ready to go. Medved said it all along, opportunities awaited all of them, and Rivera bagged a big one.

In those situations, Medved is used to saying, 'get Isaiah the ball," but when he said it Monday, there was intent. Go back to the end of the first half and with the shot clock off, it was Rivera at the top of the key in isolation, eventually driving to the hoop for the final bucket of the half.

Now a junior, in practice, Medved said he's earned the right to be put in that position.

"It actually was drawn up for Riv. I was going to do one thing, then at the last minute I said let's do this for Riv," Medved said. "Again, it's a play we work on a little bit. You know in that situation each second is a dribble, so you have plenty of time to get the ball into the front court. I thought he showed a ton of poise that way, Pat Cartier came up and set a great screen for him, got right to his spot, got a clean look and knocked it down."

Clean look from a fadeaway shot, which, once it went through, sent the Moby crowd into a frenzy. There was still .9 on the clock, and for good measure, Rivera made his shot stand by intercepting the deep inbound pass.

Hitting a basket like that hadn't happened for him in a while, and it sent his mind reeling.

"High school probably. Same spot, low key, same spot," he said, working a piece of gum like he worked the defense. "To see it go through the net, obviously a lot of things going through your head. Is the game over, or what's the next play, how do we win the game? That's really what's going through my head."

The situation wasn't ideal, not after leading the game by 11 with 3:20 remaining, but the Bulldogs clawed back. The last flurry was worthy of some angst, with John Tonje missing a pair of free throws, then Julien Soumaoro was the beneficiary of a foul call on his 3-point attempt, hitting all three to tie the score.

Then again, being down 11 at half – 13 at one point – was also far from ideal. In the first 20 minutes, CSU turned the ball over 11 times and allowed Gardner-Webb to shoot 51.6 percent from the floor.

The Rams had to settle that score first, but what would Medved address first?

"I think it was both," Tonje said. "He just said we didn't look like the team we've been in practice for however long. We just needed to settle in, play our game. Once we just settled down and started playing Rams basketball, and we came out with a win."

Tonje scored 11 of his game-best 16 in the final 20 minutes. Cartier had eight of his 12 in the same span. Rivera scored 11, but also led the team with six rebounds. Most of all, they started to take care of the ball and applied more on-ball pressure on the defensive end.

The Rams went from 0-60 a few times over in different directions, but it wasn't entirely a bad thing, especially when it ends in a victory.

Rivera said watching the game film will help a ton, and no, he wasn't referring to watching his game-winning shot. He should, but there are a few things Medved will go over and over again first.

With so much new, perfect wasn't expected. Maybe cleaner, but still, Medved knew teachable moments would come from the first outing. They will grow, that he's sure of, because they did a bit in the second half.

And they won. They've done that a lot, too.

"Now, we have to do a little bit better job of executing when we have that lead late, but a lot of teachable moments from this game," Medved said. "What a great shot by Isaiah Rivera. He showed a ton of poise there at the end and get to a spot.

"I guess that's what we do. I guess Isaiah's find a way to make game winners."

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