Sophie Webb
Brandon Rechsteiner moves down the court as a University of New Mexico defender attempts to get the ball back in Colorado State University's home game against the Lobos Jan. 6. CSU lost 80-70.
Without its top two centers, and arguably the most complete player on the team, Colorado State men’s basketball has had to significantly adjust to start conference play.
Unlike their upset win against Grand Canyon, the Rams couldn’t mount a comeback, losing 80-70 Tuesday as the Lobos held them from making a run down the stretch. CSU played well in the second half at home, scoring 40 points to New Mexico’s 41, but its first-half troubles caught up in the end.
Lobo pressure keeps Rams at bay
Opposing teams may have found a way to temporarily cooldown CSU’s offense with constant ball pressure, and UNM figured out how to successfully utilize that in Moby.
While The Rams have had their share of high-scoring nights, they’ve also had Kyle Jorgensen to fall back on, a stabilizing presence missing from the lineup Tuesday. Without that interior outlet, CSU struggled to string together stops with baskets, allowing the Lobos to answer nearly every small run.
“There’s multiple times I thought we were close to making a run, but just couple miscues, errors defensively and they took advantage of it,” Farokhmanesh said. “We just seemed that we couldn’t get that stop tonight.”
Sloppy start
Nine turnovers and 30% shooting from deep summed up CSU’s first-half woes.
While the Rams kept possession on the glass balanced, they headed into the break down nine points with momentum swinging against them. Augustinas Kiudulas headlined a group that struggled to find consistent rhythm early, as UNM’s pressure forced rushed decisions and limited clean offensive looks.
“I think we tiptoe into games,” head coach Ali Farokhmanesh said. “ We got a little shell shocked with the pressure and whatnot, and you could see it in the rhythm of our offense. And so we (have) got to know that by now, we’ve talked about it, but there’s got to be a little different fight than what is showing up offensively, just to get catches where you want the ball.”
CSU allowed 21 points off turnovers in the game, a compounding issue that prevented the Rams from building momentum despite balanced rebounding numbers.
“At the end of the day, the other piece of us not giving a rhythm and offense was we had to win the turnover battle, and we had to win the rebounding (and) second chance (points) battle, and we didn’t do either one of those,” Farokhmanesh said. “So that just makes it hard if you, execute the game plan, and you don’t execute how you have to beat that team.”
Kiudulas steps up once again
For someone who was a rotational player early in the season, Kiudulas has stepped into a bigger role quickly and efficiently since Jorgensen’s injury.
The Lithuanian forward finished with a season-high 20 points, outpacing all Rams in a solid all-around showing. Kiudulas led in both field goal percentage and 3’s made, elevating his team on a somewhat disjointed night.
“We’re asking a lot of him to learn basically the perimeter spot, because our one through four do a lot of the same things,” Farokhmanesh said. “And then two weeks later, you ask him, ‘hey, you’re going to actually run a new spot,’ and it’s completely different from what you’ve been doing all year. And he took it head on.”
Adjusting on the fly
With multiple players shifting into unfamiliar roles, CSU continues to navigate early conference play while adapting to a new reality.
“Everyone’s roles are a little different right now,” Farokhmanesh said. “And that’s part of basketball. That’s part of sports, is you deal with injuries, you deal with adversity all the time. And for the most part, I think this team’s always responded really well.”
Next up
The Rams face off against UNLV at 8 pm Friday back in Moby Arena.
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Reach Michael Hovey at sports@collegian.com or on social media @michaelfhovey.