FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Colorado State wore all-orange uniforms for its basketball game Saturday against San Diego State in homage to its roots as the Colorado A&M Aggies whose colors were “pumpkin orange” and “alfalfa green.”
San Diego State was just pumpkins.
The clock might have struck midnight for a team of such enormous expectations and possibility, losing 83-74 in the orange haze of Moby Arena and likely erasing their already dwindling hopes of an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament.
They had fallen out of most projected brackets following Tuesday’s home loss against Grand Canyon. Now they almost certainly plunged too far to recover with only four regular-season games remaining — two of which are on the road in places (New Mexico and Boise State) where SDSU has historically struggled.
That leaves the Mountain West tournament and the conference’s automatic NCAA berth. That also requires a level of play that the Aztecs have not approached in the last two games.
Like Tuesday, they looked lethargic and uninspired for long stretches, blowing defensive assignments, leaving shooters wide open, not chasing down rebounds, taking hard shots and letting a team that they beat by 23 last month at Viejas Arena look like Mountain West contenders, which the seventh-place Rams (17-10, 8-8) most definitely are not.
The regular-season title is probably gone for SDSU (18-8, 12-4), which falls a full two games behind Utah State in the loss column. The danger now is slipping out of the top four and not getting a first-round bye in the conference tournament, which would mean having to win four games in four days.
New Mexico entered the day with four losses, Grand Canyon — which holds the tiebreaker over the Aztecs from its season sweep — with five and Nevada, which was swept by the Aztecs, with six.
Coach Brian Dutcher talks about the 3-point shot being basketball’s great equalizer, especially against inferior opposition, and it was Saturday afternoon at Moby.
After opening the game 1 of 10 from deep, the Rams closed the first half 7 of 9 and finished with 13. (Their season high is 18, and they’ve had 16 or more three times.)
The Aztecs trailed by 15 in the first half and by 15 early in the second. They got within seven a few times but couldn’t stop fouling and sending the Rams to the line, where the hosts went 24 of 29.
This sequence inside three minutes to go pretty much summed up the day (and perhaps the season):
Down nine, the Aztecs had two possessions to draw closer … and turned it over twice. Miles Byrd lost the ball in traffic and Taj DeGourville stepped on the baseline. Then the Rams broke the press to get Carey Booth an uncontested dunk.
Booth, a 6-foot-10 junior who spent a season at Notre Dame and then Illinois, already had 14 points at halftime — four above his season average — and finished with 22. Jase Butler had a career-high 25 points after going 11 of 12 at the line. Brandon Rechsteiner added 16.
Butler made four 3s. Rechsteiner made five.
SDSU got 15 points from Byrd but it took 14 shots. Reese Dixon-Waters had 16 on 11 shots. BJ Davis had just five on 1 of 4 shooting.
San Diego State’s Miles Byrd puts up a jumphot during Saturday’s game against Colorado State in Fort Collins, Colo. (Colorado State athletics)
Dutcher had his full 11-man rotation for the first time in eight games with the return of Elzie Harrington from a leg injury. Harrington and Magoon Gwath, both starters before their injuries, came off the bench.
But they contributed little. Gwath had one point in five minutes and didn’t play in the second half. Harrington didn’t score in 18 minutes.
Things started off well enough for the Aztecs, leading 14-9 after the Rams missed nine of their first 10 attempts beyond the arc.
Score for the rest of the first half: Rams 29, Aztecs 11.
There was a 12-2 run, followed shortly by a 14-4 run.
At the other end, the Aztecs had … nothing. Their three leading scorers (Dixon-Waters, Byrd and Davis) were a combined 3 of 15 shooting with four turnovers in the first half.
Notable
Next up: Wednesday at home vs. Utah State (8 p.m., Fox Sports 1) … Colorado State did not have starting guard Josh Pascarelli, out with a sprained ankle … Sitting in the section above the visitor’s bench was a contingent of close to 100 fans organized by SDSU’s Colorado alumni association … SDSU is now 1-5 in “Orange Out” games at CSU. The Rams improved to 15-2 against all opponents in the annual game.