LARAMIE, Wy. — The Border War has never been a more apt description for a Colorado State-Wyoming basketball game.

Rather than a battle for the Bronze Boot, the 227th meeting between the two programs turned into war of attrition. When the dust finally settled, 56 total fouls were called, 71 combined free throws were attempted and four players fouled out.

Colorado State was on the wrong end of 34 of those whistles — compared to 22 for Wyoming — but still managed to come away with a 78-73 victory in front of 7,014 fans on Saturday at the Arena-Auditorium.

CSU (10-9, 3-3 Mountain West) has now won three straight road games after losing their first five away to start the season. A tough non-conference schedule didn’t do the Rams any favors early on, but as much as anything, changing their approach on game days has made a huge difference, they said.

“Coach (Larry) Eustachy just gave us a brand of basketball to play from the warmups to the floor, and it’s just reinvented our team,” said senior forward Che Bob, who scored a team-high 17 points. “What he’s telling us to do, like rebound and defend, pass up good shots for great shots, all that’s making us a better team.”

Prentiss Nixon continued to play through a hobbled right leg to finish with 16 points and five rebounds, while J.D. Paige added 14 points, six boards and three steals to help give CSU back to back wins in Laramie for the first time since 2010-11. Alan Herndon and Hayden Dalton — a pair of Colorado natives — tied for a game-high with 18 points to pace the Cowboys, who shot just 36.0 percent and lost for the just the second time at home this season.

“That team in the locker room is gritty. We’re going to fight and scrap with everything we have,” Nixon said. “Today showed it. They shot 42 free throws, I think, and we were still able to win on the road. That rarely ever happens. But this team just fights.”

Both of the Rams’ wins this week (they won at Utah State on Wednesday) came as seven-point underdogs, perhaps changing the outlook for a team that began league play 1-3 but now finds itself smack-dab in the middle of the league standings a third of the way through the conference schedule.

“Both teams were penalized for hard, physical play, but I loved our approach to the game,” Eustachy said. “We’ve changed some things with the warmup, coming out harder, a lot more organized. And I think it’s paid off. I know it’s paid off.”

Wyoming (11-7, 2-3) began the game on a 6-0 run, but the Rams quickly established themselves as the more physical team by routinely taking it to the rim and playing stout defense. An eight-minute drought for the Cowboys in which they missed 14 straight shots from the field helped CSU build a 15-point lead.

But the Rams nearly blew that entire lead as they turned it over 10 times in the opening frame and saw the Cowboys storm back to make it a one-point game at halftime (30-2).

The Pokes tied the game early in the second half, as the foul count quickly added up on both sides, but the hosts were never able to take the lead in the second half despite the fact CSU had three players foul out, including starters Nico Carvacho (eight points 13 rebounds) and Anthony Bonner (six points, three rebounds). Key reserve Deion James joined them on the bench before too long after totaling eight points, five rebounds and four assists.

The foul fest helped the Cowboys overcome another dreadful shooting stretch in the second half, missing nine straight at one point, as they managed to crawl back to get within two in the final minutes after trailing by as many as 11.

“There was finally a point where I said, ‘I can’t worry about who fouls out, because everybody has four,'” said Eustachy, whose team had seven team fouls in the first eight minutes of the second half and put Wyoming in double bonus for the final 9:33 of the game.

The comeback hit a dead end, though, when Paige drained an open 3 from the top of the key to give the Rams a six-point lead with less than two minutes to go.

CSU returns home to host Air Force on Wednesday looking to snap a two-game losing skid at Moby.

Sean Star: sstar@reporter-herald.com or twitter.com/seanvstar

COLORADO ST. 78, WYOMING 73



