With Colorado State finally looking like they found their mojo back, they let an 11 point lead slip out of their hands with just over a minute remaining.
From the moment Wyoming scored their 11th point, disaster was apparent for CSU in their 76-79 loss.
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Now moving to 0-4 on the road against the Mountain West, CSU has a lot of work ahead of them to remain competitive for the top seed in the conference.
One of their first challenges will be: trying to find a way to bounce back from the heart-breaking loss.
“In some way, we found a way to lose that game,” Medved said. “And it’s hard to not be emotional now when things are the way that they are. I thought we did a lot of good things and did enough I thought there to win a big road game here (Saturday afternoon). I thought we played terrific in the second half and at the end of the first half.”
While the Rams did indeed play well for 19 minutes in the second half, the last minute lacked execution.
Jalen Lake, Nique Clifford and Joel Scott all missed free throws in the clutch that very well could have sealed the game for the Rams, something that you absolutely cannot do.
“Down the stretch there in that last minute and 20, or whatever it was, everything conceivable that could’ve went wrong, went wrong,” Medved said. “There was some very unfortunate circumstances I thought that didn’t go our way. But at the end of the day you’ve got to control what you can control. If we make another free throw, games over. If we get a rebound on a missed free throw, the games over…”
One things the Rams could have controlled was their final shot of the game, one that cost them dearly.
While it certainly would have been a miracle shot, Isaiah Stevens had a brief moment of humanity. Down three with nine seconds on the clock, the Rams rebounded the missed free throw by Wyoming guard Akuel Kot and Stevens went on the fast break. Instead of pulling up for 3, he found Scott under the basket for 2, leaving only 1.8 seconds on the clock essentially ending things.
“Yeah he should’ve pulled up for the 3,” Medved said. “Yeah, there’s no question. In that particular instance probably we needed to have 3 in that moment to have an opportunity.”
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While overtime didn’t fall in the Rams favor, they were without Clifford after he fouled out at the end of regulation, a big loss for the team.
Despite being without Clifford, in these situations, the Rams aren’t sharing any excuses.
“Nique’s obviously one of our better players,” CSU forward Patrick Cartier said. “It’s a huge loss, but times like those you’ve got to rally, come together, find a way. We just didn’t do that.”
While at the end of the day, this is no doubt going to sit with the team, the way they bounce back will speak volumes to the team’s mental toughness and ability to come back from hard losses. Something that all good teams have to deal with.
With the National Champion runner-up San Diego State coming into Moby Arena on Tuesday, Jan. 30, the Rams are going to have to stay connected and get over this one quickly.
“Coach Medved just talked to us (after the game),” Cartier said. “As a team we can either splinter and go away from each other, or come closer together. As cliche as that sounds it’s real and obviously we got San Diego State Tuesday so it will be a good game coming up.”
Reach Damon Cook at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @dwcook2001
