Kelly Lyell

kellylyell@coloradoan.com

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CSU’s men’s basketball team got the big win it needed.

One that reinforced what coach Larry Eustachy has been telling the Rams all along.

Colorado State University worked the ball inside early to post players Emmanuel Omogbo and Tiel Daniels while building a six-point halftime lead, then started hitting kick-out 3-pointers at the start of the second half to pull away.

The result was an 86-69 win over New Mexico late Tuesday night.

It was the most-lopsided win in Mountain West play this season for the Rams (15-13, 7-8 MW) and snapped a three-game losing streak.

“It’s fun to be in the locker room now,” senior guard Antwan Scott said. “After those losses to Wyoming, UNLV and Utah State, it wasn’t fun.”

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There were more smiles on the bench during the final minutes of this game than there have been in the past month for a Colorado State University team that had lost five of its previous seven games and was still dealing with the aftermath of a tragic fire in Maryland that claimed the lives of Omogbo’s parents, along with his sister’s 2-year-old twins.

A breakaway dunk by John Gillon with two minutes remaining sent the CSU bench, along with the 3,148 fans at Moby Arena, into a frenzy.

The Rams were not only going to win this game, they were going to win it big. By a larger margin than they’ve won any other conference game this season.

“They needed it,” coach Larry Eustachy said. “It was really cool.

“… It wasn’t a must, but it was a great boost for us with everything that’s happened.”

The loss was the second in a row for New Mexico (16-12, 9-6), which came into the game tied for second place in the conference standings with Fresno State.

The Rams led 37-31 at the break and pulled away early in the second half on kick-out 3-pointers. Scott, who finished with 18 points, hit three long-range shots in the first two-and-a-half minutes of the second half and another five minutes in. Teammates Prentiss Nixon and Gillon added one 3-pointer apiece in the first six minutes of the second half as the Rams stretched a six-point lead to 16.

CSU worked the ball inside early against New Mexico’s zone defense, scoring 24 of its 37 first-half points in the paint and making 72.2 percent (13 of 18) inside the 3-point line. Omogbo, a 6-foot-8 junior who finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds, scored 11 points in the first 20 minutes, and Daniels, a 6-7 senior, scored 10 of his 16 before halftime.

“Coach always tells us to cut and move, and I think we have a tendency of just thinking, ‘OK, we can just stand around and shoot 3's all day.’" Scott said. "And tonight, Coach told us there was going to be no shots early; it was going to be inside, inside out.

“And that’s what we tried to focus on. We got some open looks, and we missed early, but we kept shooting and it was inside out. That helps us, I think, get in a rhythm, because they double down and give us more open looks.”

After making just 3 of 14 shots from 3-point range in the first half and only 16 of 62 in the previous two games, the Rams hit 9 of 17 in the second half. CSU shot 48.5 percent overall (32 of 66), scored 25 points off 15 New Mexico turnovers, 21 second-chance points off 15 offensive rebounds and had 18 assists, the most for a league game this season.

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Gillon also had 18 points for the Rams.

Tim Williams led the Lobos with 17 points, and Elijah Brown added 16 – five below his average.

“It was a great win, it was a great character check, and we beat, I think, the most talented team in the league tonight,” Eustachy said. “So it shows what we’re capable of when we buy into what we’re doing, and I think we finally are. … That was by far the best we’ve executed all year, and we expect to continue to do it.”

Follow reporter Kelly Lyell at twitter.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news

Tournament tracker

Rams still need a few more wins to have a shot at any sort of postseason play.

CSU 86, New Mexico 69

At Moby Arena

New Mexico 31-38--69

Colorado State 37-49--86

New Mexico (16-12, 9-6 MW) – Logwood 4-6 1-2 9, Williams 6-8 5-6 17, Aget 3-4 2-2 8, Neal 2-7 4-4 10, Brown 5-16 4-4 16, Hunter 0-1 2-2 2, Kuiper 0-1 1-2 1, Adams 3-4 0-1 6, Jacobs 0-0 0-0 0, Mathis 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-48 19-23 69.

Colorado State (15-13, 7-8 MW) – Omogbo 7-10 3-3 18, Daniels 8-10 0-1 16, Scott 6-14 2-2 18, De Ciman 3-13 0-2 8, Nixon 3-7 0-0 8, Gillon 5-9 5-6 18, Richardson 0-1 0-2 0, Paige 0-2 0-0 0, Van Ry 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 32-66 10-16 86.

A – 3,148