Cait Mckinzie
Colorado State University women's basketball guard Lexus Bargesser (3) dribbles down the court during CSU's game against the University of Utah Dec. 4. Utah won 70-58.
In a game of runs, Colorado State fell victim to a hot stretch it couldn’t recover from.
CSU was defeated by Utah 70-58 Thursday in Moby Arena, but the Rams kept themselves in the game as long as they possibly could. After being down only three at halftime, the flood gates opened up for Utah and they took the game by storm in no time.
“It was 42-all, I think it was,” coach Ryun Williams said. “And then bang, boom, bam, ball game. They really shoot it, and they expose your lack of urgency on the ball and your defensive conversion.”
In the third quarter, the Rams started strong through the first six minutes, as they turned a 5-point deficit into a 3-point lead. As the final four minutes of the third began however, the Utes turned in a shooting clinic — hitting four 3’s in that timeframe and retaking an 8-point lead by the end of the quarter.
The Rams weren’t leaving shooters open, but Utah got hot and carried that momentum into the fourth, where any late pushes from CSU could not materialize. Utah never let the Rams come within seven points again, and it finished strong to earn its sixth win of their season.
“We knew that they were going to be a good 3-point shooting team,” guard Lexus Bargesser said. “I honestly put that just on our team being able to adjust since we knew that they were shooters, so just being locked in on our gameplan in that way (was important).”
The game was back-and-forth through the first half, with Utah up by three at halftime, and both teams found their rhythm eventually by the second quarter.
Yet, Utah made its presence especially known in the first half by forcing seven Ram turnovers in just that half alone — and causing 13 throughout the entire game.
If there is one thing the Rams don’t typically do, it’s turning the ball over. They lead the nation in fewest turnovers with only 8.9 per game, and have led the nation in that category the past four seasons.
Utah brought the physicality, limited the Rams from getting in the paint and forced uncharacteristic mistakes from CSU — a tell-tale sign that they were in the driver’s seat throughout the entire 40 minutes.
“They were definitely physical, but I don’t think it was anything that necessarily should have gotten us out of rhythm,” guard Hannah Ronsiek said. “There’s going to be physical teams all throughout Mountain West play. … We just need to match their physicality better and not let it discourage us.”
CSU was fairly out of sorts from how they usually look in front of the Moby crowd, with this loss being their first of the year in Moby. Utah came out and executed their plan of how to defeat a secure CSU squad, but many of the Rams’ mistakes were self-induced.
“I don’t know if it was anything (Utah) did, to be honest with you,” Williams said. “They’re a little longer team, they collapsed on some penetration and got some touches, that sort of thing. … We didn’t finish a lot of plays tonight, and they were the aggressor in that first half; that’s why (turnovers) happened.”
Utah shot 7-of-11 from beyond the arc in the second half, and 13-for-27 for the entire contest by hitting tough shots, spacing the floor with four or five players who could shoot and getting off quick releases in which the Rams could not contest fast enough.
Avery Hjelmstad, a 6-foot-1 first-year, was the main player that took over for the Utes, finishing with 22 points on 8-of-13 from the field and five 3’s. Bargesser and Ronsiek tried to rally the Rams throughout the game with 19 and 13 points respectively, but Utah’s combo of shooting and physicality was too much to overcome.
“(Utah) found it, and that was the game,” Williams said. “Our kids played hard. … This is a game we can learn a lot from; we’re just not ready to beat a team like that quite yet.”
The Utes came in the night as a tough test on paper and on the film, but the Rams have had some other very hard battles to start their 2025-26 campaign. Road wins over future Pac-12 foes Gonzaga and Oregon State alongside a 2-point loss to Stanford in Las Vegas have been three tough matchups early on.
However, Utah brought a different aspect into the night in comparison to these other tough opponents, and CSU just could not figure them out like the other bigger schools they’ve faced.
“I think we’re going to have an emphasis on coming out ready to play,” Bargesser said. “We’ve had a few slow starts in our games this season. … All of them could shoot the ball, and that’s a little different than what we’ve played so far, and we’re just gonna have to work on that and move forward.”
The Rams now look to bounce back as they face another home matchup against Southern Utah at 1 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7 before traveling to the Bay to face the San Francisco Dons Dec. 13 in their final nonconference contest.
“(Utah)’s just the better team,” Williams said. “They’re just more physical. And if that’s what the next level is, I told our kids we’re not ready for that. We’re just not, and it’s okay. It’s okay.”
Reach Devin Imsirpasic at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter at @DImsirpasic.
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