As the stands filled with fans Wednesday, Moby Arena was set ablaze in a field of orange. Colorado State women’s basketball followed the audience’s lead, lighting up the court.
Despite trying, Fresno State could not blow out the strong flame that was the Rams. Although only Emma Ronsiek achieved a double-double, the Rams managed to double one thing after the first half: the score. CSU deflected FSU’s attempt to come back, winning the game 68-48.
“When you get to the end of February, you’re just playing your best basketball,” Emma Ronsiek said. “But even then, when you’re doing that, you have setbacks sometimes — like our home Air Force loss. … But yeah, I think we played really well defensively today.”
Including a solid defensive night, the Rams’ proudest achievement of the night was stalling Mia Jacobs.
Despite just being a sophomore, Jacobs has made a name for herself in the Mountain West. In just one game she managed to score 36 points, making herself competition for Emma Ronsiek regarding Player of the Year.
But for coach Ryun Williams, there was only one person to handle Jacobs: Marta Leimane.
“(Leimane’s) experienced — she’s guarded that personnel before,” Williams said. “Marty’s actually a very solid post defender. We did think (Jacobs) would post us a little more tonight. Marty competes screens quite well, and she understands how they’re trying to get Jacobs open, and so that’s why we went with Marty.”
With a goal in mind of keeping Jacobs below her average, the Rams did just that as she only accrued five points.
In a typical game, the audience usually sees Jacobs get anywhere near 10 to 30 points, but Lemaine shut her down.
“At first I thought she (was) going to post up more, but I guess she didn’t,” Leimane said. “Whenever she started playing and missed those first shots, she maybe got into her head, and then at that point, I knew I’m not going to let her get the ball. I’m not gonna let her get those shots off, and it worked.”
Both teams did a solid job of preventing the other from playing their best match, but both had individual flaws on the court. The Rams, after gaining possession, rushed down the court and shot fast. But instead of centering themselves, they missed.
But the majority of the time they outpaced FSU when moving down the court, and many players found themselves without a guard and open — yet when rushing — failed to see that.
“I thought we maybe took a few that were early in that shot clock,” Williams said. “But good lord, you’re that wide open.”
Although there was that issue on the court, CSU did not have a poor offensive evening. The team shot 42.9% from the field, similar to what was seen in their previous wins. Against Boise State, they shot 39.6% and 33.9% against AFA.
“Whenever they started dressing up and guarding that zone, we kind of got lost in some ways, and didn’t know what to do,” Emma Ronsiek said. “No one wanted to drive and be aggressive, and we got to work on that. And the next games, know what to do in those certain situations.”
Meanwhile, the Bulldogs struggled with the opposite. When finding their best opportunity to shoot — guarded against CSU’s trained defense — the shot clock cut FSU’s time short, turning the ball back to CSU.
In spite of shooting hastily, the Rams knew they needed to be stable and the best way to do that is with a leader guiding the charge; Emma Ronsiek being that for CSU.
For the first few minutes of the game, neither team could get a shot in — both missing their first four attempts. The first player to score was none other than Emma Ronsiek.
“It’s one of those things where you don’t want a team to come into your home court, or even away games, and have the Mia Jacobs of the conference just go off and light you up,” Emma Ronsiek said. “It was a sense of pride, like you don’t want their best players to make you look a certain type of way.”
Although Emma Ronsiek wanted to avoid being taken down, that is what she did to the players of FSU. She topped the court in points, sitting at a total of 23 — with the next closest player only achieving 12. Both her and Hannah Ronsiek carried the same plus-minus score of 22, benefitting the team on their road to victory.
Overall, the Rams scored a positive 20 in the plus-minus category while FSU’s total came out to -20, only two players gaining higher than zero, neither on the court longer than four minutes in total.
“Anytime you can get a win this month is big,” Williams said. “So really proud of the victory, obviously highlighted by the defensive effort our group displayed tonight against the Fresno team… so pleased with how we guarded them.”
For a large part of the game, the Rams managed to double whatever FSU was trying to achieve, and even reached a 23-point lead in the 3rd and 4th quarter. The Bulldogs managed to bridge the gap slightly, putting them just 20 points under by the end of the game.
As CSU became comfortable that it would win, Williams began putting in fresh faces such as Jadyn Fife, Joseana Vaz and Ann Zachariah.
Now that the Rams are confident, with several players adding up their court time, they are set to take on UNLV for the second time this season — having previously lost to them. They are set to play 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22 for the penultimate home game of the season.
“Every team in the Mountain West is different, and we have to come into that game with a different sort of edge,” Emma Ronsiek said. “We can’t get too high, can’t get too low. UNLV is a great team, but I think we can beat them, and I think we can beat them at any given night so we just have to really play together and play hard.”
Reach Sophie Webb at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @sophgwebb.
