Stevens Gets Everyone Involved in Border War Victory

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – For a team which has heavily relied on two players recently, Friday night was a breath of fresh air.

As usual, Isaiah Stevens and John Tonje were productive. They have to be for Colorado State's men's basketball team to have a chance at success. With Wyoming in town for the second half of the Border War, the senior duo received plenty of help in what became an 84-71 victory at a sold out Moby Arena, putting the Cowboys firmly in the basement of the Mountain West standings.

And who better to facilitate the notion sharing is caring than the ultimate puppet master in CSU basketball history -- Stevens.

By halftime, eight different Rams were in the scorebook, and shortly after the second half began, all nine. By halftime, Stevens had eight assists, breaking the CSU record for assists by any player, passing Ellen Nystrom with his 585^th. In those first 20 minutes, he had fed six different teammates for baskets, and early in the second, he found Rivera for his seventh.

By night's end, Stevens had the program's single-game assist record again – with 12 -- which he shares with two others. Ryan Yoder did it once. So did Rudy Carey. Stevens has done it twice now this season, four times in his career.

That's how a leader and floor general gets everybody involved. Literally.

"That is special to get everybody involved on the team. It just doesn't really happen throughout the course of a game," Stevens said. "They were really keyed in on me, coming off my actions and I just didn't really want to force the issue. I set my teammates us and they made the shots, so shoutout to them."

Colorado State trailed early, but not for long. Baylor Hebb scored an early six points as the Rams attacked the basket, which is what head coach Niko Medved liked best.

He said they had to after a lackluster performance in the first half up in Laramie earlier this season.

"That's when we are at our best. We just wanted to be aggressive," Medved said, his team now 13-16 overall, 5-11 in conference. "I don't think we were very aggressive at all offensively the first half up in Laramie … We were in the second half, we turned it on. We really needed to come out a lot edgier, an attacking mentality, and I thought we did that. I don't think we took our foot off the gas on that end the entire game. Maybe took some ones we didn't want to – maybe a few times too aggressive, but I loved it. We're better when we're attacking."

In the five games leading up to the showdown with Wyoming, Tonje and Stevens had accounted for 52 percent of the team's scoring. Such wasn't the case against the Cowboys. Tonje was again sharp, leading the team with 25 points. Stevens produced 15, giving him his sixth double-double of the season, the fifth pairing of points and assists.

Into the void stepped James Moors, on a night when Patrick Cartier was in foul trouble. He finished with 16 points, including an impressive 8-of-9 from the free-throw line, where he normally hits 56.9 percent.

Considering every big man who played was in foul trouble – two Wyoming players fouled out and Moors and Cartier both finished with four – the performance stood out.

"Absolutely. James had a monster game," Tonje said. "What I liked the most about his performance today was he was making his free throws; that's big time. That's a big part of us winning."

Considering Moors' past performance from the line, his teammates played it up. The past was the past.

"He was 8-of-9 tonight," Stevens said with a laugh. "We're going to build off this one."

A game where Stevens was at his best, making him the best in school history. He knew he was close to the school record (he already owned the men's), but not that close.

Rarely is Stevens ever unaware, which is what Medved said makes him special.

"I mean, obviously he's gifted, with incredible vision, he's a tremendous ball handler, he's so quick," Medved said. "His ability to get in the lane … He's so self-aware, if you ask him, he knew. I told you from day one when he came here his goal was to be the all-time assists leader before he ever played game, so that's pretty cool stuff.

"He knew coming into college, I'm smaller, I've got to figure out how to score at his level, I'm going do everything because I know the one thing I can do immediately that will translate is assists. That takes tremendous self-awareness as a player to understand that. Now as time has gone on, he's figured out how to score, the game has really slowed down for him, he's gotten stronger. He has an unbelievable understanding of our offense and what we're doing , reads pick-and-roll situations, sees the third line of help – he's like the Peyton Manning of quarterbacks. They just don't see the first or second, they can see the third read before it happens. They sure make me look a heck of a lot smarter than I am."

He also makes his teammates better. Friday, it was all of them, sharing his gifts throughout the lineup. On a night when his coach wanted an aggressive approach, Tonje said it was Stevens' greatest gift which helped them rev the engines.

Even if that meant pumping the breaks.

"I think he's just super patient. He manipulates the defense in so many ways," Tonje said. "He's always setting them up, setting us up. He just takes his time in there and really operates and we just give him space and he does what he does."

Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. It was a Tonje 3 in the first half which pushed Stevens past Nystrom, and with a shade more than 3 minutes on the clock, the Rams' guard had 12 assists.

All he needed was one more to claim the single game record as his alone. And he created a couple of clean looks. They just didn't fall.

"I know John missed one," Stevens said, which drew laughter, and even Tonje sitting next to him smiled. "I don't know about everybody else, but I know John missed a right-corner 3. I want to say Kenny Foster was guarding him. I thought we caught him lacking a little bit. He was kind of there but just enough for John to get his release off, but he missed it, so I'm going to put that on him."

To which Tonje – who was 3-of-6 from deep – replied: "I'll work on it."

The night, and the result, allowed them to have some fun. The arena was packed, and the game, regardless of the standings, was important. No matter where a team sits in the standings, a rivalry means something.

Wins, they mean even more when they come in such an environment and everybody plays a role.

"It makes it more fun in my opinion when everyone is getting a piece of the pie. Everybody's a little more juiced up that way, a little more dialed in when they see a shot or two go in," Stevens said. "It doesn't always work out that way, so we have to be disciplined enough to stay dialed in, even when that's not the case. When you can get it rolling like that, it is a fun sight to see and be a part of."

Stevens made sure of it, and at Colorado State, there's never been anyone better at facilitating the fun.

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