Kelly Lyell

kellylyell@coloradoan.com

It wasn’t just another road win the CSU men’s basketball team picked up Wednesday night at San Jose State.

The 76-71 victory was the 499th career victory for fifth-year coach Larry Eustachy, who hopes to pick up his 500th win at home Saturday against Air Force and dedicate the game ball to senior forward Emmanuel Omogbo.

Omogbo, who scored 13 points and pulled down 11 rebounds for his seventh double-double of the season, lost both of his parents and his sister’s twins in a fire at the family’s home in suburban Washington, D.C., last Jan. 19. Omogbo stayed with his team through a road game the following day at Air Force before returning home.

He’s playing this season, he said, in honor of his parents.

“No game since I’ve been here have we shown more heart than this group of guys tonight,” Eustachy said afterward. “And we had a goal; we wanted to win this game.

“I’m not into 500 wins, but I want to win that game (Saturday). It’s Air Force. We talked about it with the team; it’s the anniversary of when Emmanuel, basically his innocence was taken from him.

“We have to win Saturday, and I want to give him that ball for 500 wins, and that’s was the plan going into this game; We had to win this one so we can do that for him, the dedication, and I thought the team played for that.”

Sophomore guards Prentiss Nixon and J.D. Paige led the Rams (10-6, 2-1 Mountain West) with 18 points apiece, and senior guard Gian Clavell added 15.

Sophomore forward Branden Clarke scored 24 points and sophomore guard E.J. Boyce 12 for San Jose State (7-6, 0-2), which had won six of its previous eight games, including four straight on its home court.

Colorado State University, which had dropped its previous two road games by one point apiece on shots made in the final seconds, raced out to an early 13-0 lead in this one.

San Jose State answered with a 20-2 run for a 20-15 lead but couldn’t stay on top.

The Rams were up 34-31 by halftime and led by a half-dozen or so points for most of the second half.

Still, the Spartans were able to close within three in the final minute and had a chance to tie in the final seconds, but Ryan Welage’s 3-pointer with seven seconds left missed its mark. Omogbo grabbed the rebound, was fouled, and hit two free throws with 3.5 seconds remaining to seal the victory.

Eustachy’s record at CSU 97-54, and his career record is 499-312.

CSU, which needed overtime to win last season at San Jose State, improved to 14-0 all-time against the Spartans.

CSU announced Tuesday night that juniors Che Bob, Devocio Butler and Kimani Jackson have all been ruled academically ineligible for the spring semester, which begins Jan. 17. All three saw limited action against the Spartans, with Butler scoring four points in nine minutes and Bob and Jackson both scoreless in five minutes apiece.

Without them, the Rams will be down to just seven players for the final 13 games of the regular season and the Mountain West tournament.

“How resilient is this group of guys?” Eustachy said. “What’s recently been announced, we’ve been playing with for a month.

“… We can rally around this group and who knows what can happen?”

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

Next up

Air Force at CSU, noon Saturday, Moby Arena

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CSU 76, SAN JOSE STATE 71

At The Event Center, San Jose, California

Colorado State 34-42—76

San Jose State 31-40—71

Colorado State (10-6, 2-1 MW) – Paige 7-9 2-2 18, Nixon 5-10 8-8 18, Clavell 6-12 1-2 15, Omogbo 5-13 3-4 13, Butler 2-2 0-0 4, Koelliker 1-6

2-3 4, Carvacho 1-2 0-2 2, Bonner 0-1 2-2 2, Bob 0-0 0-0 0, Jackson 0-3 0-1 0. Totals 27-58 18-24 76.

San Jose State (7-6, 0-2 MW) – Clarke 10-12 4-6 24, Boyce 4-7 0-0 12, James 4-13 0-0 10, Welage 3-10 0-0 7, Schwartz 2-9 0-0 6, Mitchell 1-1 2-2 4, Williams 2-8 0-0 4, Nichols 1-4 0-0 2, Chastain 1-2 0-0 2, Hillsman 0-0 0-0 0, Thornton 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 28-67 6-8 71.

A—1,523