Colorado State University Athletics
Colorado State
Stanford
CSU falls on road at Stanford, 73-53
11/24/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford took Colorado State from the Top of the World back down to sea level Saturday night, dominating the Rams in the first half en route to 73-53 win at Maples Pavilion.
The Cardinal snapped the Rams' three-game winning streak. Each of those wins came in Fairbanks, Alaska, last week, as CSU captured the BP Top of the World Classic.
But according to CSU Head Coach Tim Miles, the youthful Rams (3-2) weren't able to corral the momentum they built last week, and Saturday was more of a CSU loss than a Stanford win.
"Honestly, I don't think it was anything they did," Miles said." I think we did it to ourselves. Everything pointed back to a week of lapse practice."
"The team had a hangover, so to speak, from experiencing success. We talked about it during the week, but sometimes it takes a whippin' like this to get through."
Stanford (6-1) got through in a hurry. After spotting the Rams a 4-0 lead, the Cardinal went on a 17-2 run and never looked back. CSU trailed 34-15 at halftime.
The Rams were a different team after the break. After shooting 25.9 percent from the field in the first half, CSU hit 45.5 percent of its second-half shots. Stanford only outscored CSU by one point, 39-38, after the intermission.
CSU had nine first-half turnovers and only two over the balance of the game. Marcus Walker turned in 11 of his 13 points in the second half. The Rams also had just as many rebounds as the Cardinal, 37.
Willis Gardner led the team with 14 points. Stanford's Lawrence Hill and Anthony Goods each had 15 to lead all scorers, and big man Robin Lopez had 13. But it was Lopez's defense, Miles said, that played pivotal in the Rams' first-half struggles.
"We tried to drag Lopez out away from the basket," Miles said, "and we did it with inexperience. That was my mistake. I think we had five errors off the dribble, ball carries and stuff like that. We had much better rhythm in the second half."
Still, there's no question the Rams learned from their face-to-face battle against one of the nation's premier programs.
"I think it's more the mark of an inexperienced team, I really do," Miles said. "How do you handle adversity? Sometimes when you get beat big, it's easy to just bounce back, like we did after we lost at Montana. And, also, to show people how you handle success, and we obviously showed that we didn't handle it very well."
The Rams' first opportunity to bounce back comes Wednesday night, their regular-season home opener, against Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Moby Arena. Pine Bluff, which returns all of its starters, turned in strong performances this season against UTEP and Wichita State.
"I think it'll be a really fair game, a close one, and I hope our fans come out and support our guys," Miles said. "They need a little pick-me-up right now. I know they can't wait to get back and perform in front of those Moby Maniacs."
