Colorado State men’s basketball stayed hot Saturday, defeating San Jose State 85-73 for its seventh win in a row.
CSU had to hold off the Trojans in the second half at the Provident Credit Union Event Center in San Jose, but improved to 19-10 overall and 10-8 in the Mountain West Conference. The Rams finished February without a loss.
Entering the final week of the regular season, the Rams could end up anywhere from the No. 5 seed to the No. 8 seed in the Mountain West tournament.
With Saturday’s win, the Rams remain in sixth place in the MWC standings with two games remaining. CSU is 1 1/2 games behind Grand Canyon and Nevada for fourth place. The Lopes played Utah State on Saturday night, while Nevada faced UNLV.
CSU went into Saturday’s game tied in the standings with Boise State and UNLV and moved a half-game ahead of both with its victory. Boise State faced Fresno State late Saturday.
The Rams own the tiebreaker if needed against Grand Canyon, but they do not against Nevada. The Rams defeated the Lopes on the road but lost to Nevada at home. Those are the only two teams the Rams faced just once in the regular season.
Saturday, the teams traded the lead back and forth for the first six minutes until CSU went ahead 15-13 on a layup by Jase Butler with 14:04 left in the first half. The Rams never trailed again in the opening period.
CSU led by as many as 10 after a layup by Rashaan Mbemba gave the Rams a 34-24 lead with 6:40 left before half. However, San Jose State whittled the CSU lead to two at 39-37 with 45 seconds remaining until the break. Brandon Rechsteiner made a 3-pointer with 32 seconds on the clock to give the Rams a 42-37 advantage at halftime.
The Rams shot 52% from the field in the first half. Rechsteiner had 12 of his 20 points in the first 20 minutes.
In the second half, San Jose State caught the Rams and briefly took a two-point lead at 49-47 with 16:10 left in the game, but the CSU took it right back at 52-49 after a 3-pointer by Butler.
The Spartans took the lead again at 55-54 with 12:26 to go, but the Rams again got it back on a layup by Jevin Muniz. CSU never trailed again.
The Rams matched their largest lead of the game when a layup by Rechsteiner made it 79-69 with 4:04 left in the game. CSU’s largest lead of the game was 12 points at 81-69 with 3:21 remaining.
In addition to Rechsteiner’s 20 points, Mbemba and Carey Booth each had 15, Muniz had 12 and Butler had 10. The Rams ended the game shooting 62% from the field. CSU outrebounded San Jose State, 29-21.
CSU will play at New Mexico on Wednesday before closing out the regular season at home Saturday against Boise State at 2 p.m. at Moby Arena.
