Colorado State University Athletics
Tuesday, January 10
Fort Collins, CO
7:00 PM
Colorado State
9-9,1-4Mountain West
74
vs
85
Air Force
10-7,1-3Mountain West
1
2
OT 1
F
Air Force
30
35
20
85
Colorado St.
30
35
9
74
Rams Drop Overtime Decision to Air Force
1/10/2023 10:19:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Cartier matches CSU best with 23 in loss
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Basketball is a game of runs. Every coach says so.
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The Rams forgot to take their turn Tuesday night. Not on offense, because that requires the requisite effort on the defensive end, and Colorado State men's basketball team definitely didn't do that with Air Force at Moby Arena for a Mountain West game.
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Even still, the Rams had a chance at the buzzer to win, but Isaiah Stevens' shot rimmed out on a night he reached 1,500 career points. With 5 extra minutes on the clock, the Falcons put the game away with an early burst and a perfect shooting performance in overtime to post an 85-74 victory.
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At this point of the season, sitting at 9-9 overall and 1-4 in conference, CSU head coach Niko Medved is stumped over his team's inability to put out a clean, sustainable effort.
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"This has kind of been a reoccurring movie, the inconsistency of our ball club," Medved said after the Falcons picked up their first conference win (10-7, 1-3). "Tonight, we just simply could not find a way to string together enough stops to win the game. We really didn't take anything away from them. They had 42 points in the paint, they hurt us on the offensive glass and then they were able to make timely 3s."
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The game wasn't a slugfest as much as it was a slog fest, due to the way Air Force plays on both ends of the floor. The Falcons were their typical methodical selves, which was expected. The offense they ran was no surprise. The effort they gave is what made the difference.
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Air Force won the battle of the paint, 42-36, and that was with Patrick Cartier matching his CSU high with 23 points on 9-of-11 shooting. When he got the ball down low, he was unstoppable. Making it harder to stomach was the reality of the Falcons owning the glass 39-25, with 12 offensive rebounds leading to 14 second-chance points, some of them off fly-in dunks.
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"Coach talked about it. They run a pretty patterned offense, and obviously they're super disciplined and play really hard, so we were pretty locked into the game plan," Cartier said. "It came down to our lack of toughness, and that obviously showed with offensive rebounding. Against an undersized team, that can't happen. That's something we've talked about and something we have to fix. We have to stop talking about it and doing it.
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"It was just a lack of toughness. It's Air Force; obviously they're going to play hard, but they're undersized. We have to do a better job."
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The Falcons shot 50.8 percent from the field, bolstered by the overtime performance where they didn't miss a shot from the field (5-of-5 with two 3s) and made 8-of-9 free throws. The 3-point shooting of Jake Heidbreder was of concern entering the game, but not during it, not until he opened overtime with his only make from deep.
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Instead, it was Marcell McCreary who daggered the Rams, hitting five of his six 3s, leading to a game-best 26 points. The Falcons broke out to a good lead in the extra session long before the Rams generated a stop, one of the two turnovers they forced.
By the end, the Falcons had a balanced effort of four players in double figures, with Heidbreder scoring 17, Rytis Petraitis 16 and a double-double with 13 rebounds, and Corbin Green added 11.
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The Rams also had four in double figures, but the 17 Stevens scored came on a rough night as he was just 6-of-22 from the field. Isaiah Rivera added 11, John Tonje 10.
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Medved felt when the game was on the line, his team couldn't muster up the effort to get a stop. The best run the Rams had was five points, and that came midway through the first half.
Â
None of them felt the offense was a root issue, but the team likes to break out, and that doesn't happen without defensive persistence.
Â
"If we don't get stops, we can't get out in transition," Rivera said. "That's a big part of our offense, obviously. If we can't get stops, it's going to be hard to win any game."
Â
Which is where Medved's frustration is most deeply rooted. He's not sure why the defensive issues have started to take hold.
Â
"I've got to figure this out as a coach," he said. "I think after the Loyola Marymount game, correct me if I'm wrong, we were somewhere in the 70s or low 80s in defensive efficiency and we've just fallen off the cliff since then."
Â
Â
The Rams forgot to take their turn Tuesday night. Not on offense, because that requires the requisite effort on the defensive end, and Colorado State men's basketball team definitely didn't do that with Air Force at Moby Arena for a Mountain West game.
Â
Even still, the Rams had a chance at the buzzer to win, but Isaiah Stevens' shot rimmed out on a night he reached 1,500 career points. With 5 extra minutes on the clock, the Falcons put the game away with an early burst and a perfect shooting performance in overtime to post an 85-74 victory.
Â
At this point of the season, sitting at 9-9 overall and 1-4 in conference, CSU head coach Niko Medved is stumped over his team's inability to put out a clean, sustainable effort.
Â
"This has kind of been a reoccurring movie, the inconsistency of our ball club," Medved said after the Falcons picked up their first conference win (10-7, 1-3). "Tonight, we just simply could not find a way to string together enough stops to win the game. We really didn't take anything away from them. They had 42 points in the paint, they hurt us on the offensive glass and then they were able to make timely 3s."
Â
The game wasn't a slugfest as much as it was a slog fest, due to the way Air Force plays on both ends of the floor. The Falcons were their typical methodical selves, which was expected. The offense they ran was no surprise. The effort they gave is what made the difference.
Â
Air Force won the battle of the paint, 42-36, and that was with Patrick Cartier matching his CSU high with 23 points on 9-of-11 shooting. When he got the ball down low, he was unstoppable. Making it harder to stomach was the reality of the Falcons owning the glass 39-25, with 12 offensive rebounds leading to 14 second-chance points, some of them off fly-in dunks.
Â
"Coach talked about it. They run a pretty patterned offense, and obviously they're super disciplined and play really hard, so we were pretty locked into the game plan," Cartier said. "It came down to our lack of toughness, and that obviously showed with offensive rebounding. Against an undersized team, that can't happen. That's something we've talked about and something we have to fix. We have to stop talking about it and doing it.
Â
"It was just a lack of toughness. It's Air Force; obviously they're going to play hard, but they're undersized. We have to do a better job."
Â
The Falcons shot 50.8 percent from the field, bolstered by the overtime performance where they didn't miss a shot from the field (5-of-5 with two 3s) and made 8-of-9 free throws. The 3-point shooting of Jake Heidbreder was of concern entering the game, but not during it, not until he opened overtime with his only make from deep.
Â
Instead, it was Marcell McCreary who daggered the Rams, hitting five of his six 3s, leading to a game-best 26 points. The Falcons broke out to a good lead in the extra session long before the Rams generated a stop, one of the two turnovers they forced.
By the end, the Falcons had a balanced effort of four players in double figures, with Heidbreder scoring 17, Rytis Petraitis 16 and a double-double with 13 rebounds, and Corbin Green added 11.
Â
The Rams also had four in double figures, but the 17 Stevens scored came on a rough night as he was just 6-of-22 from the field. Isaiah Rivera added 11, John Tonje 10.
Â
Medved felt when the game was on the line, his team couldn't muster up the effort to get a stop. The best run the Rams had was five points, and that came midway through the first half.
Â
None of them felt the offense was a root issue, but the team likes to break out, and that doesn't happen without defensive persistence.
Â
"If we don't get stops, we can't get out in transition," Rivera said. "That's a big part of our offense, obviously. If we can't get stops, it's going to be hard to win any game."
Â
Which is where Medved's frustration is most deeply rooted. He's not sure why the defensive issues have started to take hold.
Â
"I've got to figure this out as a coach," he said. "I think after the Loyola Marymount game, correct me if I'm wrong, we were somewhere in the 70s or low 80s in defensive efficiency and we've just fallen off the cliff since then."
Â
Team Stats
USAFA
CSU
FG%
.508
.439
3FG%
.368
.250
FT%
.842
.840
RB
39
25
TO
11
9
STL
6
6
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
23
FGM
9
3FGM
0
FTM
5
Pts
17
FGM
6
3FGM
1
FTM
4
Pts
11
FGM
4
3FGM
1
FTM
2
Pts
10
FGM
2
3FGM
1
FTM
5
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballG
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