The clip of Isaiah Stevens has become famous in Colorado State basketball circles.
“When the orange comes out, we get a dub,” Isaiah Stevens said in the locker room a year ago after the Rams won their annual “orange out” game honoring the school’s Colorado A&M days.
He’s making that promise part of his CSU lore.
Stevens and the Rams left it late but rode the wave of a sold-out, raucous crowd to a 78-75 win over UNLV Friday night.
It was a vital win that often looked unlikely for CSU.
“I thought we showed a ton of resolve tonight,” coach Niko Medved said.
Here’s how it happened and what it means.
The key plays that led to winning push
The Rams (15-3, 3-2 Mountain West) trailed most of the first half, were down seven at the break and trailed by 10 (52-42) with 13 minutes to go.
UNLV (9-8, 2-3 MW) was clicking. Ignore the record of the Rebels. UNLV was shorthanded early this season but took off once twins Kalib and Keylan Boone were able to play.
The Rebels have beat Creighton, New Mexico and Boise State (and were robbed by a poor call of a win over Utah State).
So, down 10 in the second half loomed large. But CSU fought back in a big way. Stevens took over with four-straight paint drives, one in a layup for himself and three in a row ending in Joel Scott finishes at the rim.
It brought the Rams and a program record (4,410) student crowd to life. A controversial no-call on a Scott dunk attempt pushed UNLV back into the lead, but CSU kept clawing back.
By just under the 4-minute mark, CSU had tied it. At 68-68 with just over 3 minutes left, the Rams took over.
A Nique Clifford block, Stevens 3-pointer and Pat Cartier 3-pointer and the Rams were up four. That did it. CSU held UNLV to 2-6 shooting and two turnovers in that final 3:18 after the tie.
The late defense was symbolic of where CSU changed the game. UNLV had zero first-half turnovers, but the Rams forced 11 of them in the second half.
Colorado State’s stars shine brightest
CSU has been in an offensive slump for the past few games.
With just 32 first-half points, it felt like more of the same. Not to the team, though.
“I thought offensively tonight we did get back to kind of being who we are. I thought we made a couple of shots early then we went through a stretch where we just could not make an open shot. I thought we were getting good looks. I thought we were really moving the ball,” Medved said.
“We hung in there.”
Sure enough, it started to click in the second half. Scott was a force inside. He scored 10 of CSU’s 12 points in one stretch.
The deep ball came at the key times, with Clifford, Cartier and Stevens (twice) hitting from 3-point range in the final surge.
The Rams ended up shooting 54% in the final 20 minutes and scoring 46 second-half points.
“We were coming back to all these timeouts and all these tight huddles we had with each other and we were super pleased with the shots we were getting. We’ve been talking so much about finding our rhythm, finding our groove, trusting the offense, trusting the flow. I feel like we did that for all 40, honestly,” Stevens said.
“We made some timely ones down the stretch.”
On a night when the bench struggled (Joe Palmer, Tavi Jackson, Jalen Lake and Rashaan Mbemba were all minus 10 or worse), the stars took over.
Stevens played 38 minutes and had 18 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Clifford was 7-8 shooting with a game-high 21 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Scott had 14 points on 7-9 shooting and Cartier scored 10 and had five assists.
The Mountain West mayhem
Welcome to the Mountain West. UNLV has already started denting the standings as a team perceived as an outsider to contend.
The Rams needed a wild comeback and then overtime to beat Air Force at home earlier this week.
Samuel L. Jackson had it right in “Jurassic Park” when he said “hold on to your butts.” If you’re coming to Moby or watching a game at home expecting a comfortable, cruise-control win, think again.
Any win is precious. Protecting home court is vital. They weren’t the prettiest two games for the Rams, but they held serve this week at home.
“This is going to be like this the rest of the year,” Medved said. “These last two wins were huge for us. Did we have our fastball all the time? No, but sometimes you don’t control that and you have to find ways to win, and we did.”
Follow sports reporter Kevin Lytle on Twitter and Instagram @Kevin_Lytle.