Colorado State knocks No. 23 Nevada out of Mountain West Conference tournament

Fri, Mar 15, 2024
NCAAB News (AP)

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Jalen Lake scored 16 points, Isaiah Stevens added 15 and Colorado State beat No. 23 Nevada 85-78 on Thursday night in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Conference tournament.

The Rams (24-9), the No. 7 seed, never trailed after the 17:06 mark of the first half. Nique Clifford had 14 points and nine rebounds for Colorado State, and Joe Palmer added 12 points.

Jared Lucas led the second-seeded Wolf Pack (26-7) with 18 points. Kenan Blackshear added 16 points for Nevada and Tylan Pope scored 10.

Colorado State maintained a mostly double-digit lead until Lucas made two free throws to cut the lead to 72-63 with 7:07 left. Nevada later trimmed it to 74-69 on a layup by K.J. Hymes with 5:15 left, but the Rams then pushed the lead back up to nine points about a minute later.

Nevada didn't get closer than four points in the final four minutes.

The Rams held a 43-28 lead going into the final seconds of the first half. But Nevada's Daniel Foster converted a second-chance layup with four seconds left. Then the Wolf Pack's Tyler Roleson stole the ball around midcourt just before the buzzer and was fouled as he attempted to heave up a shot. Roleson converted three free throws with 0.3 seconds remaining to cut the lead to 43-33 at the half.

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Colorado State shot 54% (14 of 26) from the field for the first half while Nevada made only 38% (8 of 21).

BIG PICTURE

COLORADO STATE: The Rams started the season winning 13 of their first 14 games, but down the stretch were 4-4 to finish tied for sixth in the conference. All five starters for the Rams are either graduate seniors (Scott, Josiah Strong, Stevens and Patrick Cartier) or seniors (Clifford).

NEVADA: The Wolf Pack entered the quarterfinal having won seven straight games and 10 out of 11. They also are a veteran team, with four starters either graduate seniors or seniors.

UP NEXT

Colorado State will play the winner of Thursday night's final quarterfinal matchup between third-seeded Boise State and No. 6 seed New Mexico.

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AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball