LARAMIE, Wyo. — Colorado State men’s basketball is falling farther down the conference pole.

For a large part of the season, the Rams have dealt with inconsistent shooting to begin their matchups — often costing them the game — and Saturday against Wyoming was no different as they began the game shooting 1-of-10.

CSU wasn’t able to bounce back from its first half inconsistencies and lost 68-57, begging the question: what makes it so difficult to pick up momentum in the beginning?

“I thought the physicality got to us,” head coach Ali Farokhmanesh said. “ I thought it worked out as the game went on. And I thought we started finishing in the paint, and that’s kind of what brought us back in the game. But some of it is just we missed a lot of shots from good shooters that have been making shots all season.”

Yes, it was a different environment, but it also looked like a different group of Rams. CSU fell further in the final portion of the second half as the Cowboys took off and their arena was lit with productivity and fired-up fans.

What once was a four-point lead from UW turned into 16 points and a six-minute scoring drought from CSU.

“For whatever reason, we weren’t physical enough to get touches in the paint,” Farokhmanesh said. “Then I think we shared the ball enough to make the reach to get there, and I think we (have) got to get back to when we’re getting over pressure like this. Someone’s just got to drive the basketball.”

Despite the loss, the Rams kept most statistical categories close. Turnovers, steals, assists and rebounds were all within one of each other showing it was just a lack of offensive production that was costly for CSU. That and the plague of scoring droughts.

Going into the game, CSU was averaging 40.4% from deep, but against the Cowboys, it’s final percentage from 3 was 17.4%. Several consistent players would have open looks, yet still would miss.

“There’s ups and downs, and you can’t buy into that,” Farokhmanesh said. “You (have) got to remember who you are and what you do every single day, and it’s hard sometimes to remember that in those moments, but all these guys put in plenty of time. … We got to get our mojo back a little bit.

“That’s on me too. I got to put us in some better situations to be able to continue handling pressure better and being more willing to drive the ball.”

Before taking on the Rams, UW was shooting a 32.4% from deep. But by the end of the matchup, the Cowboys were making 50% of their 3-pointers.

“I feel like they’re one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in our league, and they shot … really well tonight,” forward Kyle Jorgensen said. “And sometimes that’s what happens, you know, I give credit to them, and they shot almost 50% from 3.”

Meanwhile, UW was having a redemption game after a poor loss to Utah State. Like CSU, the Cowboys had a poor conference record and were ranked the 10th worst team in the Mountain West. And UW players like Khaden Bennett was excelling.

Bennett broke his personal scoring records with 22 points and racked in half of UW’s steals with three — the highest number of steals any player got throughout the game.

“They punched us in the face and we kind of weren’t ready for it,” Jorgensen said. “They started the game off strong, and we started slow and we didn’t lead the whole game. So it was kind of our mentality from the start, it wasn’t where needed to be. And they took off and ran with it.”

Although it didn’t feel like it, CSU cleaned up some past areas of struggle.

Against USU, the Rams had its worst night in terms of turnovers with 21. Then five days later, CSU faced San Diego State, in which no player from the Rams was able to hit double digits in points — something that hasn’t happened since 2020.

But against the Cowboys, the Rams had nine turnovers and had two players hit over 10 points — Jorgensen with 13 and Jevin Muniz with 14. Yet it can be hard to feel that success after a hard rivalry loss.

“I look for success — obviously, everyone does,” Jorgensen said. “But at the end of the day, sometimes you don’t get success. And you have to, after the game, … look back and see what you didn’t do right and fix it.”

For CSU, this is its third loss in a row, and it only has nine more games to go before the Mountain West Tournament in Las Vegas.

Both Farokhmanesh and Jorgensen acknowledged the want and work to get better, but time is running out if the Rams have a chance of getting back to March Madness for a second year in a row.

Redemption is possible as CSU will take on UW at home Feb. 14.

“This is basketball, you can’t buy into the ‘You’re in a slump, you’re this,’ like it happens to everybody,” Farokhmanesh said. “Steph Curry went 0-for-12 in a basketball game and that doesn’t mean he’s a bad shooter. That just means you got to bounce back.”