Nothing clicked for Colorado State men’s basketball in their 73-58 loss to Loyola Chicago Saturday afternoon.
Offensively and defensively, the Rams were completely disjointed.
The Ramblers simply outworked the Rams on the glass, snagging 40 total rebounds compared to the Rams’ 31.
“To me, the rebounding, the turnovers, all those things to me are more about your mindset and what you’re thinking about and what’s at the forefront of your mind in that moment,” head coach Ali Farokhmanesh said.
On the offensive side of the ball, none of CSU’s shots were falling — shooting just 4-for-17 on field goals in the first half, while 14 of the team’s 24 first-half points came from free throws. The second half wasn’t much of a step up for the Rams, shooting 11-for-29.
Loyola’s defensive pressure shut the Rams down in the first half, and by the time CSU started to break through it was too little, too late. At one point, the Rams did not make a field goal in almost 10 minutes of game time.
”We have to trust our offense more and reinforce what we do,” Carey Booth said. “Pressure honestly helps us play better if we run it the right way. We just have to lean into what we do more.”
In stark contrast, Loyola shot 17-for-31 in the first half, which propelled them to a 20-point lead at halftime.
The Rams were unable to answer the offensive pressure from the Ramblers, who shot 42.9% and steamrolled their way to their third victory of the season, handing CSU its first loss of the year.
Frustration hurt the Rams in a big way, with fouls plaguing CSU throughout the game. Five different players finished with at least three fouls and junior standout Jase Butler fouled out with two minutes left to play.
“We let frustration get to us,” Farokhmanesh said. “You can see it on their faces … It ballooned to (a 20-point deficit) and I thought it was because of frustration.”
The Rams were unable to climb out of the hole they dug, but improved on a handful of things after their return from the locker room.
“I thought we made the right adjustments,” Farokhmanesh said. “I thought the guys executed them. I thought the coaching staff did a good job handling the substitutions with the foul trouble, too.”
CSU showed flashes of fire on the offensive side of the ball in the second half, shrinking the Loyola lead and getting the Moby Arena crowd engaged. Unfortunately for CSU, it was unable to flip the game on its head and mount an improbable comeback.
Some bright spots still poked through in spite of the loss. Justin Menard’s passing ability was on full display, and the young talent showed flashes of future superstardom.
While Jaden Ghoreishi has been the freshman phenom for the Rams to start the year, Pops Dunson was the youngster that performed on the hardwood.
“I feel confident,” Dunson said. “I feel like I got the flow of the game a little quicker. Once you see one go in, you know, you can’t tell me nothing else.”
Dunson finished his Saturday with 13 points — second on the team — on 5-for-9 shooting, making a great case for more minutes.
“When we needed a little bit of a scoring punch, I thought he made some big shots down the stretch for us,” Farokhmanesh said. “That’s who we thought he was coming out of high school, right? He’s a guy that can, he can get you eight points in four minutes pretty fast.”
Josh Pascarelli built off his standout performance in CSU’s Nov. 11 win over Portland State with a team-leading 15 points, shooting 57% from the field.
Outside of Dunson and Pascarelli, the Rams had a statistically poor game offensively. The green and gold shot just 28.6% from beyond the arc, and 32.6% overall.
“I thought we just, we rushed a lot of plays,” Farokhmanesh said. “They’re a little chaotic on defense at times, so if you stay poised and you play off two feet and you keep spacing the right way, you’re going to get open shots and we saw that in the second half… It just goes back to that first 20 minutes, you can’t put yourself in a 20-point hole.”
The Rams now turn their focus to their next matchup against North Dakota State on Nov. 18, and look to improve in a number of areas as the season progresses.
“We clearly did not have the right mindset for this game, and what was required as a group,” Farokhmanesh said. “At the end of the day, that falls on me, (and) it falls on our leadership. We got some growing up to do in terms of that.”
Reach Jack Randels at sports@collegian.com or on social media @jackrandelsmedia.
