Jalen Lake tried calling game. Unfortunately, Barrington Hargress was the one who picked up.
At the end of regulation Lake hit a 3, putting the Rams up 65-62. With three seconds left, Hargress hit his half-court heave at the buzzer to even things up. After the game against Tennessee State, when Aaron Nkrumah hit a similar shot, Medved talked about the decision to foul up three. He said it was about the same statistically, whether a team won or lost when they fouled and when they didn’t.
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After choosing not to foul against Tennessee State, Medved wanted to foul up three Friday night, but Lake said he felt like he wasn’t sure he could make a play and so CSU didn’t foul. Ultimately, Colorado State men’s basketball fell in overtime 77-75 to UC Riverside.
That 3 was just the tip of the iceberg for Hargress, who finished the night with 31 points and six assists. Time and time again Hargress was able to drive into the lane and finish largely uncontested, just one of many gripes Medved had after the game.
“We played some good defense in stretches, I think we did,” Medved said. “The defensive mistakes that bothered me are the times that we let (Hargress) get to the rim without a contest. That really bothered me.”
Alongside the lack of rim protection was an inability to corral UCR’s misses. CSU was outrebounded 51-30, allowing 15 offensive boards. Rebounding has been a concern for Medved all season long, and if his team is to be taken seriously, they have to be better on the glass.
Ultimately that boils down to effort, something CSU lacked in that aspect of the game.
“We’ve just got to be a lot tougher,” Lake said. “That’s just point blank, period. We’ve got to be able to be a lot tougher in those situations, be more connected and (we’ve) got to set our mind and rebound.”
Lake agreed that it was a mentality issue when asked.
Losses like these can sometimes be a turning point in the season. Medved called this a game that they needed to find a way to win and just didn’t. The Rams now have to hope this is just a page that can be flipped, instead of an entire chapter in their 2024-25 story.
“I’m pretty sure all of us are really mad about the loss,” said Jaylen Crocker-Johnson, who finished with a career-high 21 points on 6-of-11 shooting. “What we’ve always talked about for the past week — two weeks is just rebounding (and) being more physical on that end. … Going forward we just need to lock in and have a better mentality going forward towards rebounding.”
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Alongside rebounding, the offense has been a big concern for CSU as well. Until proven otherwise, CSU will enter each game with the question: What will the offense do?
That question once again failed to be answered Friday night. The first half only exemplified what has been a season-long struggle. On the defensive side of the floor, CSU was able to hold UCR to just 31% from the field.
The score at the break was 27-26 in favor of the Highlanders.
“They shot 31% in the first half and we’re down one, that’s crazy,” Medved said. “That should never happen, but it did, so we’re going to have to figure out something on that end.”
Medved credited some of the offensive woes to spacing. UCR doubled off Ethan Morton, daring him to shoot. While his defense has been elite and has contributed to winning, he’s been almost unplayable on the other end of the floor.
Morton finished just 1-of-5 from the field and 2-of-5 at the charity stripe. With him not being a threat on the offensive side of the court, Nique Clifford was unable to get many looks, largely due to a lack of spacing.
Clifford was largely absent in the second half, scoring just one point. He didn’t take a shot in that half until there was just 2:26 left in the game.
“They’re doubling him in the post when he catches it,” Medved said. “Kick it out, you’ve got to knock down some shots in those scenarios. And we were only able to do that sporadically. They’re helping off some other guys to really crowd him in the lane and that’s presenting a lot of challenges.”
In the wake of a loss as close as the one Friday night was, things can sometimes seem a lot worse in the moment than they actually are. Ultimately, time will tell whether or not this is a loss that foreshadows bigger issues, or one that CSU can use as a launching pad to turn things around.
For now, it will be about getting back in the gym, watching the film and improving in the areas that need to be better.
“I’ve been doing this long enough to know how I feel right now,” Medved said. “There’s some things that I know, but I also want to be careful not to make too many judgements. Sometimes watching the film and getting a nights sleep or whatever, you have a much better approach.”
“But yeah, we’re going to have to change some things. We haven’t been playing well enough for long periods of time and we’re going to have to figure that out.”
Reach Damon Cook at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @dwcook2001.
