Even if a team has the lead for 30 minutes — out of a 40-minute game — it may feel like a guaranteed win, but that doesn’t always mean it’ll happen.
Even if they are leading by 13 points after dominating the first half, the game isn’t over yet, and the win isn’t secured.
And for Colorado State men’s basketball, it fixed one of its biggest problems right off the bat: starting strong. Players like Kyle Jorgensen and Josh Pascarelli lit a passionate spark for the Rams, although not sustained. But after a powerful first half came a comeback from Utah State — in addition to a total of 21 turnovers from CSU — leading them to fall 65-61 Friday.
“You just can’t panic at the end of the day,” head coach Ali Farokhmanesh said. “We’ve got to help our guys just get better in those situations … and control the ball and control what we can control.”
The Aggies capitalized on CSU’s miscues, a team that started strong but began to struggle to take care of the ball. And the Rams’ longtime lead of ten turned to five, then one, and once the lead was lost, it was gone for the rest of the game.
In the second half alone is when USU made eight of its steals and had several pick-sixes in a short time. By the end, 24 of the Aggies’ points came from turnovers.
“We need to help each other settle down,” Farokhmanesh said. “We have to, as a group, be able to settle down when pressure picks up, or when the intensity of a game picks up. I thought we just panicked a little bit.”
And although fans and players left the game with a bitter taste in their mouths, the entire game wasn’t a loss.
CSU previously faced USU in late December and fell 100-58, which some players referred to as an “embarrassment”. So right off the cuff, there was this energy from the Rams, and the spark was Jorgensen.
He opened the game 11-for-11, consistently finding space away from the Aggies’ defense and knocking down open looks from deep.
“I thought a lot of Kyle’s 3’s actually were just him spacing really well and us making plays for each other,” Farokhmanesh said. “We couldn’t get (good spacing) because we were turning the ball over. So that was partly why I thought Kyle couldn’t get to those 3’s in the second half.”
Although Jorgensen didn’t add many 3’s during the second half, he still ended with 5-of-6.
But for a player like Jorgensen, who had a fairly consistent shooting night, all that positivity can be erased with a few poor moments and plays.
I had six turnovers, that’s just unacceptable — especially in a game like this, a huge game that would have obviously had a huge comeback in our conference run,” Jorgensen said. “I think I got complacent, and I think halftime a little bit, I kind of settled. … And I feel like I could have done more at the end of the day.”
This game was only Jorgensen’s second start after his injury, and a lot of the pressure fell to him as he had the most minutes and was passed the final ball with just a few seconds left, determining if there would have been overtime or not, which ended up being a miss.
“Kyle’s really hard on himself,” Farokhmanesh said. “I think that’s probably the biggest takeaway. … I think he took that loss as hard as anybody. That’s who he is, he’s a competitor, and he wants to win. It’s just not always going to go your way down the stretch.”
This was the first competitor CSU has faced twice in the season, the first chance to prove it could rewrite the current conference standings. But with this loss, the Rams sit at tenth in the rankings; only three other teams are lower.
But now CSU shifts its attention to San Diego State, whom the Rams have not faced off against this season, and sit at first in Mountain West standings with a 7-1 conference record. USU had a tough past couple of losses, giving CSU an in, but the Aggies have kept their win streak alive against the green and gold.
But now, there’s nothing left for the Rams to do except learn, move on and hope they can seek their revenge in the Mountain West Tournament if they get scheduled to face USU.
For the second-most scorer of the night, Pascarelli, acknowledged the mistakes he and the team made Friday, but noted one thing particularly, “We’ll be good.”
Reach Sophie Webb at sports@collegian.com or on social media @sophgwebb.
Interested in more sports content? Sign up for Ram Report here for weekly CSU sports updates!
