Colorado State University Athletics
Saturday, January 27
Fort Collins, CO
1:00 PM
Colorado State
13-6,4-4Mountain West
65
vs
49
San Jose State
6-13,1-6Mountain West
1
2
3
4
F
San Jose St.
19
7
9
14
49
Colorado St.
18
16
16
15
65
Rams Settle in, Cruise to Victory over San Jose State
1/27/2024 4:22:00 PM | Women's Basketball
“Emotion” the word of the day for annual Fight Like A Ram game
Emotion, basketball and fight. All separate terms, but for the Colorado State women's basketball game against San Jose State Saturday, all of them were palpable and enjoyed thoroughly in Moby Arena's first sellout for the team in 25 years.
Some people experience emotion, basketball and fight separately and in their own ways. But for 40 minutes, the team and their cancer warriors were acquainted with all of it at once.
The annual Fight Like A Ram game is typically filled with emotion above all. Players connect with local cancer warriors during the week leading up to the game and honor them by wearing their warrior's name on the back of their jersey. Sophomore guard Marta Leimane's warrior was her own teammate and best friend: redshirt freshman guard Taylor Ray.
"It's very emotional. She's my best friend here, I'm always with her," Leimane said. "It's really emotional for me to wear her last name on my jersey. We're fighting through this together and we are very strong together."
Heading into the matchup, which CSU won 65-49, the team as a whole felt their emotions with each other as they headed into mostly uncharted territory. The first sellout for a women's game at Moby since 1999. Fight Like A Ram day, honoring a teammate. Trying to grasp at a much-needed conference win at home following a tough road loss Tuesday.
The main focus for head coach Ryun Williams was to take it all in, but then focus on the immediate task of playing and winning a basketball game.
"Very emotional day. This is the fifth time we've done this with UCHealth and it's emotional because our kids build a relationship with their cancer warrior and they learn the journey their warrior is going on," Williams said. "So you want to represent it and you want to play so well for that and that's not always an easy thing to do. I thought our kids did a tremendous job of just finding that poise and that composure and trying to make it just a basketball game. Not easy to do on a day like this. I think it took an incredible focus mindset by our team."
In moments during the first half, it was evident the team was itching to make things happen to the point silly mistakes would be made or the ball simply was moving around the offense too fast. But as time went on, the pace slowed and the Rams settled in.
After allowing 18 points in the first quarter, CSU held the Spartans to seven and nine points in the second and third quarter.
A main contributor was being able to force turnovers at ease. The Spartans gave up the ball 14 times, which the Rams capitalized on with 11 points off of those turnovers. Williams attributed a few of those steals to cutting off entry passes, something they game planned for during the week.
For the most part, the Rams dominated the interior on both sides of the ball, which Williams was impressed with given the fact the Spartans "live in the paint." Most of it was thanks to Sydney Mech, who had 12 points, six rebounds and four blocks, helping CSU to outscore SJSU in the paint 16-8.
"We really worked on our offense this whole week against the zone because we knew it was going to come in," Mech said. "On defense. It was just one of those days, I guess. Blocking has been kind of my thing, and I just found it today."
Against the matchup zone which SJSU ran against the Rams, Williams mentioned the importance of sharing the ball to stretch the defense while connecting better as an offense.
Executing well on that premise, four Rams scored in double figures. McKenna Hofschild scored 22 points to go with six rebounds and five assists. Mech had 12 points, Sanna Strom added 11 and Hannah Ronsiek tallied 15 with seven rebounds.
The Rams will travel to Colorado Springs to take on Air Force Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.
Some people experience emotion, basketball and fight separately and in their own ways. But for 40 minutes, the team and their cancer warriors were acquainted with all of it at once.
The annual Fight Like A Ram game is typically filled with emotion above all. Players connect with local cancer warriors during the week leading up to the game and honor them by wearing their warrior's name on the back of their jersey. Sophomore guard Marta Leimane's warrior was her own teammate and best friend: redshirt freshman guard Taylor Ray.
"It's very emotional. She's my best friend here, I'm always with her," Leimane said. "It's really emotional for me to wear her last name on my jersey. We're fighting through this together and we are very strong together."
Heading into the matchup, which CSU won 65-49, the team as a whole felt their emotions with each other as they headed into mostly uncharted territory. The first sellout for a women's game at Moby since 1999. Fight Like A Ram day, honoring a teammate. Trying to grasp at a much-needed conference win at home following a tough road loss Tuesday.
The main focus for head coach Ryun Williams was to take it all in, but then focus on the immediate task of playing and winning a basketball game.
"Very emotional day. This is the fifth time we've done this with UCHealth and it's emotional because our kids build a relationship with their cancer warrior and they learn the journey their warrior is going on," Williams said. "So you want to represent it and you want to play so well for that and that's not always an easy thing to do. I thought our kids did a tremendous job of just finding that poise and that composure and trying to make it just a basketball game. Not easy to do on a day like this. I think it took an incredible focus mindset by our team."
In moments during the first half, it was evident the team was itching to make things happen to the point silly mistakes would be made or the ball simply was moving around the offense too fast. But as time went on, the pace slowed and the Rams settled in.
After allowing 18 points in the first quarter, CSU held the Spartans to seven and nine points in the second and third quarter.
A main contributor was being able to force turnovers at ease. The Spartans gave up the ball 14 times, which the Rams capitalized on with 11 points off of those turnovers. Williams attributed a few of those steals to cutting off entry passes, something they game planned for during the week.
For the most part, the Rams dominated the interior on both sides of the ball, which Williams was impressed with given the fact the Spartans "live in the paint." Most of it was thanks to Sydney Mech, who had 12 points, six rebounds and four blocks, helping CSU to outscore SJSU in the paint 16-8.
"We really worked on our offense this whole week against the zone because we knew it was going to come in," Mech said. "On defense. It was just one of those days, I guess. Blocking has been kind of my thing, and I just found it today."
Against the matchup zone which SJSU ran against the Rams, Williams mentioned the importance of sharing the ball to stretch the defense while connecting better as an offense.
Executing well on that premise, four Rams scored in double figures. McKenna Hofschild scored 22 points to go with six rebounds and five assists. Mech had 12 points, Sanna Strom added 11 and Hannah Ronsiek tallied 15 with seven rebounds.
The Rams will travel to Colorado Springs to take on Air Force Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.
Team Stats
SJSU
CSU
FG%
.276
.390
3FG%
.259
.419
FT%
.714
1.000
RB
49
30
TO
14
5
STL
4
3
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
22
FGM
7
3FGM
3
FTM
5
Pts
15
FGM
5
3FGM
5
FTM
0
Pts
12
FGM
5
3FGM
2
FTM
0
Pts
11
FGM
4
3FGM
3
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballG
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