Colorado State Rams vs Air Force Falcons Basketball Recap

Colorado State 69, Air Force 66

On the same night that San Diego State and Brigham Young played for first place in the Mountain West, another team was busy shoring up its credentials as the third-best team in the league. Sure, everyone would like to face the challenge of being a 20-1 team at the top of the standings, but even though not every game can be a nationally celebrated one, a conference win is a conference win just the same.

The Colorado State Rams defeated the Air Force Falcons in an in-state, Mountain West Conference rivalry showdown on Wednesday night at Moby Arena in Fort Collins, Colorado. The Rams are now 4-2 in the Mountain West Conference and are alone in third place, ahead of fourth-place UNLV. Air Force, for its part, dropped to 2-4 on the young conference season and missed its own opportunity to make a statement on a night when San Diego State-BYU drowned out the rest of the Mountain West slate.

Colorado State is new to the pursuit of NCAA Tournament berths, at least in recent decades. The program has made just one appearance in the Big Dance since 1990 and has not won a tourney game since 1989. CSU is in the midst of a large-scale attempt to remake the basketball culture in the northern part of Colorado. Reaching third place in the MWC and overcoming UNLV – one of the league’s stronger and more consistent programs – was and is a big step in that evolution. Beating lower-tier teams like Air Force is also essential to a team’s process of maturing, and sure enough, the Rams were able to take care of business against their feisty opponent from Colorado Springs.

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Travis Franklin led the Rams with 21 points and Andy Ogdie continued his strong play, adding 15 points of his own. Colorado State has now won three of its last four games. The Rams used solid free-throw shooting down the stretch to hold off Air Force's upset bid. Head coach Tim Miles's Ram-tough CSU squad won despite shooting just 5-of-26 behind the arc. The Rams showed their mettle of a genuinely tough team by winning on a night when they couldn’t shoot straight and didn’t perform at their best. This game gives CSU even more to shoot at in the weeks ahead. Postseason possibilities are within CSU’s grasp.

On the other bench at Moby Arena sat an Air Force team that’s also in the midst of a makeover. The losing Falcons shot 50 percent from the field and had four players score in double figures. Michael Lyons led the Academy with 14 points on the evening. Head coach Jeff Reynolds' squad fell to just 1-6 on the road, despite playing both BYU and Colorado State competitively away from home. Lyons hit a late three-pointer to keep the Falcons around to till the final buzzer, but the Falcons did not have enough to come out on top. 

Colorado State – with its new attitude and demeanor – won the day. We’ll see if CSU can repeat this pattern enough times to make a difference as February arrives.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer