Rams Stave Off Wolf Pack in Final Minutes, 62-55

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RENO, Nev. – A win is a win and the Colorado State women's basketball team will take it in Nevada with a 62-55 finish Sunday afternoon at the Lawlor Event Center.

Everything was working and then nothing was for the Rams, but when it mattered most in the final minutes, Colorado State banded together to grab an all-important victory for the Mountain West standings. CSU improved to 18-7 overall and 9-6 in the conference, while the Wolf Pack dropped to 17-9 and 9-5 in the MW. The win also gave CSU the tiebreaker over NEV if that comes into play since the Rams defeated NEV at home last month.

Out of the gates, the Rams looked unstoppable, scoring the game's first 10 points and then leading 16-2. However, Nevada outscored CSU in the following two quarters and grabbed its first lead at the 6:30 mark in the four quarter. The Senior Day crowd came alive when the Wolf Pack led by three with 3:41 left. Nine unanswered Ram points brought the decibels back down. The key moment that ignited the Rams came on a Upe Atosu steal that led to a breakaway layup, which knotted the game at 53-all. After a timeout, Kendyll Kinzer drained a three. Following was an in-control McKenna Hofschild runner in the paint that brought CSU's lead to 58-53 with 1:01 left on the clock. From there, CSU secured the victory from the line and on the defensive side of the floor where Sydney Mech had a crucial block and rebound in one of Nevada's final chances.

"In those last minutes, we really settled down and showed poise in a tough road environment," head coach Ryun Williams said. "Our team wanted this game really bad, and they went out and got it. Every game from here on out will have this much intensity. Today felt like a tournament game and I'm proud of how our team fought. We got off to a tremendous start, which gave us the base for the rest of the game, because we knew they would make a run. Nevada is a great team in this league that just defeated New Mexico. Defensively, we were making it tough for them and forcing them to shoot low-percentage shots. By the end though, it came down to our toughness and poise in the final minutes. We'll take that into our next games."

Atosu led the Rams in scoring with 18 points, while Kinzer and Mech added 14 and 10, respectively. On the glass, Karly Murphy grabbed 11 rebounds to go along with her seven points. CSU shot 40.7% from the floor and kept NEV to a 31.7% clip. The game featured 31 turnovers with each team practically splitting it, but CSU getting the extra one. However, not much ever came from the miscues as NEV turned them into 12 points and CSU got nine points out of it.

Next, the Rams will welcome San Diego State at Moby Arena on Thursday, Feb. 24^th with a 6 p.m. tip.

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

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