Sometimes, stories have an extraneous chapter.

And while Colorado State men’s basketball’s journey through an unsteady season extended through one last National Invitation Tournament game, it didn’t exactly provide a clean ending. The Rams looked unlike themselves in a 69-64 loss to Saint Joseph’s Wednesday, struggling with shooting and unable to overcome an unsteady start.

The Hawks, on the other hand, traveled to Moby Arena from near sea level and handled defensive assignments with intent.

SJU’s defense proves itself

Coming into the matchup, the Hawks were known for their strong defense and somewhat middling offense.

And that played out exactly how it was supposed to.

SJU finished with eight steals and forced a handful of those possessions that just never really got started.

“(The Hawks) just get out on shooters,” SJU head coach Steve Donahue said. “So the shots aren’t as comfortable. They’re a little more rushed than normal. I thought our pressure full court took some time off the clock.”

That showed up early on, though.

CSU opened the game shooting just 22% from the field during a 12-2 Hawks run, managing only a dunk from Carey Booth and a midrange from Brandon Rechsteiner in that stretch. Even when the Rams settled in later in the half, it never fully flipped.

It felt like they were just trying to catch up to the pace of the game from the start.

CSU doesn’t play cleanly

The Rams didn’t really look like themselves for a big chunk of the night, especially early.

“Yeah, I thought some of the shot selection was fine,” Ali Farokhmanesh said. “We weren’t running our offense, really. I thought we took some weird shots. Just did some stuff that just didn’t look like us, especially in that first, probably 12 minutes of the first half.”

Possessions that usually turn into back cuts or kickouts just stalled, even though CSU typically runs a slower pace on offense.

Then it would come back, briefly.

But there were exchanges where it looked right again.

When swing passes were sharp, the ball moved and Kyle Jorgensen and Jase Butler crashed the glass for consecutive second chances. CSU even climbed back from a halftime deficit, improving its shooting and tightening up ball security in the second half.

And every time it felt like something might build, something else kind of killed it.

Momentum doesn’t stick for the Rams

That was kind of the theme of the game.

Runs, but never control.

SJU and CSU traded blows in the first half, with neither team able to fully ride the momentum. The Hawks looked like the better team early on, though.

Jevin Muniz hit a big three to cut it to a one-possession game with under 30 seconds left, and for a second it felt like that was the play the Rams had been looking for. Like maybe this was where it turned.

Then Jaiden Glover-Toscano answered almost immediately.

“This group just has that understanding of not quitting, and particularly on the defensive end,” Donahue said. “So if we make some really bonehead plays, which we did on the offensive end, our ability to stay focused and compete is why we can figure out how to win those one-possession games. It’s all our mental toughness, really.”

The Rams led for just 56 seconds the entire game.

SJU led for 36:54.

And even though it never got completely out of hand, it also never really felt like CSU was going to win it either.

Poor shooting catches up

At some point, it usually comes back to the numbers.

CSU shot 36.2% from the field and 23.3% from three.

That’s usually not going to get it done, especially against a defense like that.

The looks were there at times too, which made the misses that much worse for the Rams. Open shots that just didn’t fall and possessions where the work was done were there, but the result weren’t.

Muniz led the Rams with 14 points and hit three 3-pointers, and Butler added 11 points of his own, but overall it never quite clicked.

And it felt like that on a lot of those misses too, not always bad looks, just not clean ones.

CSU’s season ends

A weird way for a season to end.

Even the environment felt a little different with NIT graphics on the big screen, a quieter Moby than usual and a somewhat abnormal game.

“I think people don’t realize how hard it is when your ultimate goal is to go to the NCAA Tournament and you don’t get that,” Farokhmanesh said. “And you feel like, especially the run we were on, you felt like you could get there especially.”

And that part showed a little too.

The Rams got back into it late and gave themselves what felt like a real chance near the end of the game.

But it never really felt clean, and by the end, they ran out of time more than anything else.

The Rams finish their season with a loss that didn’t feel out of reach, just one they couldn’t quite pull into reach either.

Reach Michael Hovey at sports@collegian.com or on social media @michaelfhovey.

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