After taking down Fresno State on Wednesday, Colorado State had a tough task against No. 2 San Diego State in the quarterfinal. The Rams put up a big fight as the No. 7 seed and shot a boatload of threes, but it wasn’t enough to fight back as they dropped to the Aztecs 71-68.
Colorado State 27 – San Diego State 39
Colorado State 35 – San Diego State 32
Final: Colorado State 62, San Diego State 71
The two programs started the game out similarly to the rest of the games today, going back-and-forth throughout the first few minutes. The Rams took a 13-8 lead off a three-pointer by Jase Butler five minutes into the game.
The Aztecs turned in a 10-0 run following that Colorado State three, taking the lead 18-13 after 10 minutes. Colorado State battled back and retook the lead for a brief moment, going up 22-21 at the seven-minute mark. The Rams stayed in the game thanks to six made threes off of 14 attempts.
San Diego State took the lead back shortly after and never looked back for the rest of the half. The Aztecs completed an 11-0 run in the final three minutes of the half and into intermission. SDSU went into halftime with a 39-27 lead off of 44 percent shooting from the field. The Aztecs only made one three-pointer in eight attempts.
Colorado State shot just 32 percent from the field and 43 percent from three in the first half. Butler and Brandon Rechsteiner led the half for the Rams with nine points each. SDSU forward Pharaoh Compton led the Aztecs with 10 points on a perfect 4-4 shooting from the field and 2-2 from the free-throw line.
Colorado State came out of the half making two shots beyond the arc in the first five minutes, but it was masked by 10 points for San Diego State in that span. The Aztecs went up by as much as 12 for most of the second half and kept it around that mark.
Colorado State managed to cut it to a single-digit deficit at eight before San Diego State put it back up with free throws. Another Colorado State three made it a seven-point game with just two and a half minutes left. The Rams finished the night going 13-34 from beyond the arc.
During that span, San Diego State hadn’t made a field goal in over five minutes. The Aztecs made use of fouling to get to the free-throw line and kept the lead between eight and 10 points. SDSU went to the line 42 times, making 22 of them. In fact, the final six minutes of the game went without an SDSU score from the field.
San Diego State finished the night shooting 24-50 from the field and 1-11 from three. Colorado State went 19-57 from the field and 11-13 from the free-throw line. Miles Byrd led scoring for SDSU with 12 points on 5-10 shooting. Rechsteiner led the Rams with 16 on 5-8 shooting.
San Diego State will head to the semifinal and play the winner between San Jose State and New Mexico, which kicks off shortly after this game.