Rams Pull Away From Thunderwolves

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Team	1	2	3	4	F
Colorado St.-Pueblo	14	10	16	5	45
Colorado St.	8	24	18	14	64

Colorado St.-Pueblo

Colorado St.

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – On Sunday's you don't even hit the snooze button. You don't even set an alarm. A day to relax, regroup and recharge.

Which is the way Colorado State's women's basketball team opened up a matinee with CSU Pueblo at Moby Arena. Like the Rams were still wiping the sleep out of their eyes and deciding if it might be an entire day in pajamas.

CSU Pueblo was the opposite, on the move and eager to go, building up an early 10-2 lead, then holding an 11-point advantage early in the second stanza. At that point, the hosts had decided that was enough.

An 18-3 run to end the second quarter fueled the rest of the day, as the Rams moved to 9-1 on the season with a 64-45 victory

"A little sleepy at the start," CSU head coach Ryun Williams said," but Kendyll Kinzer, I think, woke us up. She had a couple of big 3s late. I thought Upe Atosu's steal and Kendyll's big 3 there with under 5 seconds to go there to end the second quarter was huge. I don't know, to give us some traction and kind of calm us down there a little bit.

"She was big tonight. Her shot making was really big. It seems like every time you need one, Kendyll is there to deliver."

CSU didn't shoot well to start, but when Kinzer heated up, it seemed to fuel the team. She hit her first five shots of the game – all of them 3s – giving her a career-best in that mark, as well as the 15 points they produced. She also had a season-best nine rebounds, just one shy of her first career double-double.

She wasn't forcing anything, which is a trait Williams has come to love, her composed approach to the moment at hand.

"I wasn't really thinking honestly, and I think that's how the run came," Kinzer said. "I was just catch and shoot, and when I don't think about my shot, it normally works out better. I didn't think about much. I was just shooting when I was open, and my teammates did a good job of finding me and giving me the ball, and I just wanted to get our team on top before half."

The Rams had a run to end the final three quarters. A 7-0 run capped the third, and they used a 12-2 run to finish the game, part of a stellar fourth frame.

The team was coming off a mini tournament in Arizona where they had used strong fourths to put games away, which point guard McKenna Hofschild feels is becoming one of their strengths.

"Our fourth quarters are probably always our best quarters," she said. "We're getting a little bit of a feel, then we want to step on that gas and get the biggest lead we can. The fourth quarter, we're just doing what we can to get some stops, get some buckets."

Finding buckets is what she does best, too. For herself and for her teammates. She scored 10 points in the contest, adding a career-best 11 assists for her first career double-double, the first Ram to turn the point-assist trick since Ellen Nystrom on Jan. 21, 2017 at home against Utah State.

It's never a bad thing to be in the same company as a two-time Mountain West player of the year, and Hofschild is doing it spending almost as much time on the floor as she is on her feet. She's not the biggest player on the floor, and teams are taking a more physical approach to guarding her. It doesn't always work, as CSU Pueblo's Jalen Long started and played just seven minutes, drawing five fouls trying to defend Hofschild.

While both players are key, the Rams had a third player move to the forefront in Petra Farkas. With Sydney Mech and Bengisu Alper on the bench, Farkas drew a tough defensive assignment, but also finished with a flurry of nine points in the fourth to give her 15 in the game to match a season-best.

"Petra, first basket of the game is off a simple back cut, so she does give you that," Williams said. "We'll get that 3-ball going, there's no doubt about it there. She just has a really good feel for the game. She just provides a lot of energy with how she moves, and she had a tough defensive assignment again tonight, so she gave us a huge lift."

The Rams needed them, too, and throughout the game. The final score suggests it was an easy day, but the first half was a real struggle, and the third quarter wasn't exactly a cakewalk, either.

The team may be 9-1, and their only blemish is to the No. 7 team in the country, but none of it has felt easy to Williams, but he did leave the building knowing his team had answered the call.

Eventually.

"That's the thing about this team. It's not always how you draw it up, it's not always part of the game plan, but they do always kind of find a way," Williams said. "We go on some big runs. It's been different kids throughout the year. Sometimes it's Kenna, sometimes it's been Upe, sometimes it's our bigs, sometimes it's Kendyll."

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Team Stats

Kinzer Kendyll

Farkas Petra

Hofschild McKenna

Atosu Upe

Players Mentioned

Bengisu Alper

Upe Atosu

Petra Farkas

McKenna Hofschild

Kendyll Kinzer

Sydney Mech