Second-Half Rally Produces Sixth Consecutive Win

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Feb 28

3:00 p.m.

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at San Jose State

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Let's paint a picture.

Of a team which strayed from what had made it hot. Took a detour from playing with a physical nature and a toughness leading to a five-game win streak. Avoided the tight spaces and kept things at a distance, particularly the shot selection.

By the end of the first half Tuesday night, which had been a bit (DeShawn) Gory for Colorado State, visiting Fresno State was dictating play inside, building a 24-10 scoring advantage while the Rams swung the ball outside and settled for deep looks.

Good looks aren't always the best shots, and it hurts when they don't fall – CSU was just 4-of-18 behind the arc. There were no drives to the basket, no inside cuts and no free throws to counter misses.

So CSU coach Ali Farokhmanesh used the break to remind his squad of who they were when they were at their best, using broad, colorful strokes. The best part, what he told his team they'd already noted for themselves, the sign of a maturing team.

The sign of a team which can overcome a 13-point deficit (for the first time since the 2022-23 campaign) to post a 74-70 victory at Moby Arena, giving the Rams a winning record in conference play for the first time this season (18-10 overall, 9-8 in league).

"At halftime, it wasn't … Ali's going to say something, the coaches are going to say something, but the thing that we've really worked on is being a player-led team," CSU's center Kyle Jorgensen said. "I think that's something we struggled with very early on, and I think as of recently it's not only just been the returners or people that have been here, it's been everybody as a collective. The bench guys, even Charlie (Dortch) seeing what he sees. At the end of the day, it's a team effort, it's a team game, so matters."

Colorado State is a strong 3-point shooting team statistically, so they have free reign to shoot them. However, there's an approach with is preferred, one they weren't taking in the first 20 minutes. The ball was moving around the perimeter but rarely went inside.

The odd part is CSU went in knowing Fresno State had deficiencies defensively in the interior.

He wanted it fixed. They knew what he was going to say, and they gave themselves a chance with a 9-0 run late in the first half to keep the game close enough to rally.

"That's what's awesome with this group, though, is they are pretty self-aware. I wish they would have become more self-aware in the first four minutes of the game," Farokhmanesh said. "But it was fun to watch them figure out a way and understand what was going on in the first half. Because in the first half, we were 8-for-12 from two, but you jacked 16 shots. We shot 13 3s.

"Now, they were open, so I don't want to tell them not to shoot them because most of them were pretty open. But that's one of the poorer defensive teams in the paint, and the whole thing this whole game was attack the paint, attack the paint, drive the next closeout, drive the next closeout. And they started doing a way better job of that in the second half, attacking the paint, getting to the rim, and also drawing fouls."

Going inside first will open up shooters, change the way a team defends. Good shots become better shots. Attacking the paint can lead to layups, with the Rams getting 14 points inside in the second half. It also led to trips to the line, shooting 15 free throws in the second half (CSU made 11), as compared to two in the opening stanza.

Getting the ball inside is a team effort, starting with the guards, which Branden Rechsteiner knew was partly up to him.

"We knew we could win in the paint; they're not a great defensive team in the paint. They don't foul either, so we were kind of just taking where we could get off the ball screen and throw back throw-ins," he said. "I think that's when we started seeing our 3s fall."

The Rams closed the gap to four at one point, only to see it grow to 10 again. That's when Rechsteiner hit back-to-back treys, igniting the crowd. With 4:30 remaining, Carey Booth made a pair of free throws to give CSU the lead, Jase Butler followed with a charity toss and then Jorgensen hit a big triple for a 68-64 edge.

"We always talk about give the ball energy. Move the ball, get a paint touch, kick it one more time, pass it to the next guy. Next guy drives it," Farokhmanesh said. "He gets a paint touch. He kicks it out, passes the next one. It feeds off each other. The biggest thing we talked about, too, was good to great, right? We were going to get good shots. And I thought we got good shots in the first half.

"Then I thought the second half we got great shots. And that was the biggest difference is we truly decided we were going to go from good to great. And they executed at a high level. I praised them also for the last possession of the game. That was just our motion. That was not a play call. That was nothing else. They just ran our motion offense."

The epitome of team scoring, Colorado State had five in double figures, led by Rechsteiner with 16; he now has a run of five consecutive games in double figures. Jevin Muniz had 15, with Booth, Butler and Jorgensen each with 11.

It took a better approach, especially after a sting of three emotional games in six days. So Farokhmanesh is giving everybody the day off on Wednesday. They need it physically and mentally, for the legs and for the minds.

The Rams' started to turn around the season when they became more reliant on their physicality and tougher, too.

But the last part, that isn't just throwing around the body. That's knowing how to change the flow of a game when the play isn't meeting expectations.

"It's all mental, right? We have physical guys. They can play physically," Farokhmanesh said. "They've shown it. Now they can't hide it anymore. Before it's, are you a physical team?

"Well, yeah, we've proven it now. So you are. Now it's just mentally, can you get in the headspace to do what's required to win the game?"

And the answer is, yeah, the Rams have figured that out, too.

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