FORT COLLINS – CSU Rams fans, now you can exhale.
David Roddy wasn’t about to let the Rams’ two-game loss turn into three. Especially after he started to feel it from the 3-point ground.
Roddy, the Rams’ burly junior forward, hit the winning jumper with nine seconds left, and caught a rebound just seconds later from a miss by San Diego State’s Matt Bradley in a wild finish to keep CSU 58–57. victory over San Diego State on Friday night in front of a sell-out crowd at the orange Moby Arena.
“I’m getting too old for this,” Rams coach Nico Medved said after the game.
The 6-foot-6, 252-pound CSU star scored 22 points, 13 of them in the second half, a stanza that the Rams (17-3, 7-3 Mountain West) opened with a 12-5 score. run to distance yourself from the physical Aztecs (12-6, 4-3).
Trey Roddy a minute after the break increased the advantage of the hosts to eight, 28-20. His jumper pushed CSU to 33-20 with 17:44 left in the game. A simple play by teammate Chandler Jacobs widened the gap to 18 points, 43-25, six minutes later.
It was some sort of payback for a 79–49 loss to the Aztecs in San Diego on January 8. hairy late.
After CSU quarterback Kendle Moore appeared to have an ankle injury with five minutes left, the Aztecs turned on the press and turned up the heat.
San Diego State converted straight 3-point games with consecutive possessions with 1:56 left to cut a 10-point CSU stock by more than half. Due to Lamont Butler’s downtime with 1:06 left, the visitors equalized the score to two, 56-54.
The Aztecs then briefly took a 57–56 lead thanks to Butler’s 3-pointer with 14 seconds left, securing Roddy’s heroism across the field after Isaiah Stevens pushed the ball into the court instead of taking a timeout. He splashed the big Rams near the left elbow.
The Aztecs did the same, pushing the ball the other way from Roddy’s bucket, but Bradley’s ball clanged off the hoop and CSU fans rushed to the court in jubilation.
“(Friday) we made this extra game,” said Bear, whose Rams lost a heartbreaker in overtime to rival Wyoming last Monday, “another game we needed to win the game.”
Alumni such as former Rams big man Nico Carvacho, who played professionally in Germany last fall, witnessed the program’s first home sale since February 2013. the first half is registered at the level of 115.3.
Noisy locals left satisfied. In the end.
The Aztecs, the No. 2 team in the nation in defensive efficiency, according to KenPom.com (85.4 opposition points per 100 opposition possessions), set the pace early. Ironically, Roddy’s first three-pointer, which came about two minutes into the fight, hit the baseline harmlessly. He flared up in the second half, but at the time it seemed like an omen of things to come.
“It’s hard to score against them, they play their game,” Bear said of San Diego State. “They won’t let you play the beautiful, free game.”
In the early stages, this game was not like that at all. As in the match in Laramie, CSU started off sluggish on the offensive side. But when the Rams opened the game with all-court pressing, the gambit seemed to baffle the willful Aztecs from the start as well.
In the initial 12-minute media timeout, the crowd found themselves regaling themselves with a brick feast. the sum of the two programs had more personal fouls (five) than field goals (four).
It was 5-5 with 11:17 to half-time before the hosts combined 7-0 to take a 12-5 lead. Thanks to 10 first-half points scored by young guard John Tonier, CSU was led into the break 23-18.
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