BYU Routs Colorado State At Home

FORT COLLINS—Typically a very strong team at home, Colorado State uncharacteristically lost in a 92-70 blowout to Mountain West powerhouse BYU. The loss to the 14TH ranked Cougars was only the Rams’ third of the year at Moby Arena.

Colorado State gave up 54 second-half points, and BYU’s leading scorer, Jimmer Fredette, torched the Rams all night, putting up 36 points- nearly double his season average of 20.9.

“They’re a tough team,” Colorado State forward Andy Ogide said after the game. “You have to play 40 minutes, guarding the ball every possession. If you have defensive lapses, they’ll make you pay.”

The Rams came out with a lot of intensity to start the game, feeding off the energy of the crowd of 3,738, and kept the game close for much of the first half.

The Cougars stretched the lead to ten at halftime, and CSU would get no closer than that margin for the rest of the night, as BYU steadily pulled away for the 22-point win.

Travis Franklin had a strong first half with 12 points, but was shut down in the second, scoring only two more to lead the Rams with 14. “They were doubling Andy… so I just wanted to stay aggressive,” Franklin said.

Ogide was held to only six first half points by Cougars 6-foot-11-inch senior Chris Miles, who played stout defense down low and went 4-for-4 from the field.

“Miles’ one-on-one defense- it is absolutely hard to score on him,” CSU head coach Tim Miles said. “He did a good job on Andy… it was like running into a brick wall.”

Ogide did show more life in the second half, however, finishing with 13 points.

But the story of the game was the hot shooting of Fredette, who knocked down six three-pointers, and every time the Rams tried to make a run, he seemed to have an answer.

“Fredette is a special player,” Miles said. “The numbers he’s got are remarkable. His numbers are better than some of the player of the year candidates.”

Rams’ freshman Dorian Green had his hands full with the task of guarding Fredette for much of the night.

“He gets shots, creates space, and if he gets a good look, he knocks it down,” Green said. “He’s hard to guard.”

BYU head coach Dave Rose said he thought Fredette came up big, especially in the first half when BYU was fighting the Rams’ early momentum.“Jimmer was good tonight. He steadied the ship with his shots in the first half,” Rose said. “He really helped us.”

Looking forward from the loss, the road does not get any easier for CSU. The Rams travel to UNLV Saturday before returning home for a showdown with the conference leaders, 15th ranked New Mexico, next Tuesday.

“(BYU) just has our number. No other team in the conference does this to us,” Ogide said about the Rams pair of double-digit losses to the Cougars this season. “We’ll just put it behind us and look forward to UNLV.”

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Contact the writer at mlaughlin@milehighhoops.com