FORT COLLINS — A few days removed from a second-half collapse on the road, the Colorado State men’s basketball team left no doubt Saturday inside a sold-out Mody Arena.
Led by senior Isaiah Stevens’ 18 points and eight assists, the Rams blew the doors off Mountain West Conference leader Utah State for a 75-55 win that strengthened their NCAA resume.
Stevens broke the school record for career 3-pointers (236) with a pair of 3s, transfer Joel Scott added 17 points and eight rebounds on 7-of-9 shooting, and CSU held Utah State to 38.6% shooting from the floor to secure their fifth win in six games.
The Rams (8-5 Mountain West, 20-6) moved within a game of the first-place Aggies (9-4, 21-5) in the conference standings, with Utah State dropping into a two-way tie with San Diego State (9-4, 20-6).
Those same Aztecs held the Rams to 11 second-half points in a 71-55 come-from-behind victory on Tuesday night in San Diego. But CSU had no such issues on Saturday, jumping ahead 43-26 at halftime and never allowing the Aggies to get within single digits the rest of the way.
Transfer Nique Clifford was 4-of-10 shooting to finish with eight points, while adding 10 rebounds.
Great Osobor led the Aggies (21-5, 9-4) in scoring, finishing with 15 points, 13 rebounds and two steals. Ian Martinez added 14 points for Utah State. In addition, Javon Jackson had 10 points.
___
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.