Rams Come Up Short of Lady Rebels

FORT COLLINS -- Leading into the contest there were important conversations taking place.

Some have been of an individual nature, and those are dedicated to the collective talks in order to get to what has been ailing Colorado State's women's basketball team. The Rams are 11-4 on the season, with those losses being by a combined 16 points. There's the part which makes it somewhat concerning.

They aren't handling the tough games tough as nails. Three of those losses have now come in succession after Saturday's 83-78 defeat to UNLV at Moby Arena, the past two in Mountain West play, digging the team a bit of a hole.

Not that there's any shame in losing to the defending conference champion which has won its past 26 matchups with conference foes, but the Rams felt they needed to steal a game after giving one up on the road at San Diego State – in overtime – to open league play.

"It's kind of been a consistent theme this year is we feel these are all games we could have had. If just a couple of plays go a different way, these are wins in the column instead of losses," CSU point guard McKenna Hofschild said. "At the end of the day, that's just basketball. There's going to be a lot of close games; some you're going to win; some you're going to lose.

"UNLV is a great team; they've been a great team the past couple of years in this conference. We really wanted this one just to prove we're up there and we're not to be messed around with, especially coming off San Diego State. That was a hard one."

The tough losses are supposed to sting, but when they start to pile up, there's a message. That's what CSU coach Ryun Williams wants to get across. In the clutch moments, his team has not been making plays. Saturday, UNLV did, and they came across the board.

The Lady Rebels (12-1, 2-0) owned the boards 49-30, turning 13 offensive rebounds into 22 second-chance points. They picked up 31 points off the bench to win that battle, and UNLV had two bench players not averaging double figures – Amarachi Kimpson and Nneka Obiazor – combine for 28 points and 6-of-8 shooting from behind the arc, as well as a starter in Alyssa Brown more than double her output with 14 points and 17 rebounds.

Off the bench, Colorado State had Cailyn Crocker looking like her old self, pouring in 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting, but the rest of the Rams reserves added six. Every UNLV player who saw time scored. The Rams couldn't say the same.

Close, Williams noted, isn't the target.

"You want a little more belief. We use the word conviction a lot," he said. "I thought our kids really fought. They did put themselves in a position, but we need to win one of these to get that next level of belief. It's not just making shots. It's a stop, it's a rebound. It's just playing solid defense without fouling when they're putting pressure on you. Are we learning? I don't know. This is four losses by a combined 16 points – that' hard. It's hard on them, it's hard on our coaches. Your eight there but still a big L. We have to find a W here soon."

By comparison, Williams said UNLV did all of that and more. That's the target.

"You can see that championship DNA," he said. "They made the big plays."

That, Hofschild said, is what the team has been discussing most of late. The little things which lead to stops or an easier bucket. A calm head when needed.

They have been, by description, encouraging. The team feels it is as together as it has ever been and hasn't lost direction.

She has remained brilliant. Saturday was her third 30-plus point game of the year, her second successive double-double with 30 on the board, finishing with 34 points and 10 assists. She also led the team in rebounding with seven, which is an issue.

Seeing that, the team and the graduate student are discouraged by the results, not the outlook. If Crocker is any indication, those chats can lead to more positives.

After averaging 10.6 points per outing last year, Crocker has been below seven this season. She had produced just one double-digit scoring performance, 13 points at UC Irvine, but nine of them came from the line.

Against UNLV, she was back to aggressively driving to the basket, finishing strong, still getting to the line and hitting two of her three treys.

It was the culmination of a lot of discussions, some of them very internal.

"It's consistently throughout the season. Your mentality and getting in your head can go really bad, and I've definitely been there," Crocker said. "I haven't been in the greatest mental space to be out there and perform, and that's been really hard for me. I think my coaches, my teammates being able to still believe in me when maybe sometimes I don't believe in myself is really big. I think moving forward, I knew at some point it was going to click – like, I'm OK, I'm still who I am and know what I can do, I just needed it to click. I'm thankful it clicked."

At one point, Crocker stressed what she hadn't been doing wasn't fair to the team, especially Hofschild and all the pressure she has to carry. Her teammate felt it was her time to alleviate some. Hannah Ronsiek did her part offensively, coming of a down shooting performance to score 12 first-half points.

An intent which Hofschild appreciated from Crocker, just not as much as the conversation leading to action.

"I will say, Thursday, we just got lunch, talking about the season and hanging out, and Crocker said this season she hasn't been where she expects herself to be and she says she's going to change it," Hofschild said. "And then for her to come out two days later and not only say it and prove it is huge for us. We have the utmost confidence in her and what she does for this team."

Maybe, Crocker said, some of her teammates she knows are thinking much like she was, can use her example, take notice they all go through it, even a player with as much experience as she does. As more of them start to follow suit, the team will only benefit.

The opening act has been far from ideal. The closing act is still months away, however.

"I think in all the games we've lost this season, except this one, we've been ahead in the fourth quarter, so we haven't just been able to finish. I think that's been big for all of us," Crocker said. "We have to finish. It's great to be ahead the whole game or have fun the whole game, but we can still have fun and finish the game, too. I think that's big for us, and we've been working on it. Obviously today didn't go the way we wanted it to, but there was lot of positivity we did see, too. We have to stay together and keep going."

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Cailyn Crocker

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