FORT COLLINS — After Niko Medved’s CSU Rams stormed the Buffs, CSU fans stormed the court.
And why the heck not? The Rammies haven’t been ranked this early in a long, long time. And if Wednesday night at Moby Arena was any indication, they don’t plan on leaving the polls anytime soon.
Behind 20 points from senior point guard Isaiah Stevens, CSU held off the rival CU Buffs at Moby Arena on Wednesday night, 88-83, to improve to 7-0 on the young season while continuing to add to what’s becoming an impressive NCAA Tournament resume.
It was the Rams’ first victory over the big-brother Buffs on the men’s hardwood since December 2017, and just the program’s third over CU coach Tad Boyle’s Buffs at home since 2011.
“That was probably one of the last things I had left on my bucket list,” said Stevens, who returned for his fifth season after helping to lead the Rams to the NCAA tourney two years ago. “To be able to get one in my last year (here) was pretty special.”
CSU now has victories over the ACC (Boston College), Big East (Creighton) and Pac-12 (CU) under its belt, with a game against another Power-5 brand, Washington (4-2), up next Saturday in Las Vegas.
CU (5-2), meanwhile, hosts Pepperdine next Sunday.
Wednesday’s contest saw the most points CSU has scored against the Buffs in Fort Collins since December 1997 (91), countering a game-high 30 points by Buffs guard KJ Simpson and another 21 from freshman forward Cody Williams.
The Rams were without starting power forward Patrick Cartier, who’s dealing with a bad back. Medved said after the game that Rams guard Jalen Lake (16 points) played with a broken finger that will require surgery and sideline him for roughly six weeks.
“Boy, he didn’t back down an inch, did he?” said Medved, who beat the Buffs for the first time in four meetings. “He played with a lot of confidence and it really, really sparked our team.”
The Buffs trailed by 15 at the break and seemed to be outhustled and outscrapped toward the final two minutes of the opening stanza, much to Boyle’s chagrin.
No shock, that script flipped in the opening minutes of the second half, in which a fired-up CU squad came out of halftime on a 12-6 run, capped by Williams’ three-point play at the 16:55 mark that cut CSU’s margin to 47-38.
Williams went to work again three minutes later, draining a jumper that capped another Buffs mini-run, this one 5-0, and drew the visitors to within five, 53-48.
Boyle got onto the scoresheet for disagreeing with a foul on Simpson halfway through the second stanza. Stevens made his two foul shots and got a bonus two after a technical on Boyle, giving CSU a four-point possession and a 64-52 lead.
With a half-dozen NBA scouts in attendance, Williams drained another jumper that got the Buffs to within 68-62 with 6:18 left. But Stevens gave the hosts a little breathing room again with a fadeaway trey, his first of the night, at the 4:18 mark to put CSU up 75-65.
Between Clifford switching sides, the introduction of beer sales throughout Moby, the rivalry and the stakes, this one opened up like an emotionally charged slugfest befitting two of the better defensive teams in the country.
Clifford made the first shot against his old mates count, dropping a dagger from the top of the 3-point arc that extended CSU’s lead to 7-2 four minutes into the game.
J’Vonne Hadley’s contested layup 30 seconds later gave CU its first bucket of the evening, and his putback with 14:06 until halftime extended a 6-0 run and put the Buffs ahead for the first time, 8-7.
The hosts countered with an 8-0 run of their own and a trey by big man Rashaan Mbemba put CSU up 19-10 with 7:38 to go until halftime. Joe Palmer went gonzo after that, going on a personal 8-6 run keyed by two treys, including a rainbow with 3:56 before the break that put the Rams up 27-18.
The Minnesota native dropped an even bigger dagger two minutes later, with a trey from the top left part of the arc giving the hosts its first double-digit lead of the night at 33-22.
The bigger Buffs hung in there despite an awful shooting start, but a sloppy final 90 seconds sent Boyle into the half in a foul mood.
Especially when Hadley with three seconds left threw a pressured inbounds lob at teammate Julian Hammond III. Rams guard Josiah Strong read it like a free safety and hip-checked Hammond out of the way for the steal, then laid it up between two shocked Buffs to give CSU a commanding 41-26 lead at the interval.
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This story has been corrected to reflect that CU's next game is against Pepperdine on Sunday.
