Courtesy of Colorado State Athletics
For the most part – definitely against quality opponents — there are going to be stretches.
Those periods where, as a team, the quality of play is high, spurts create momentum and leads, such as the 13-point margin Colorado State’s men’s basketball team held with 14:42 remaining in Saturday’s contest with Colorado. Moby Arena was in a fervor.
Smart coaches know a game will likely swing both ways at some point as a rival such as the Buffaloes are not apt to go down without a fight. Coaches just hope they can keep those stretches brief. A 16-0 run, however, is not. A 16-0 run creates angst among the masses.
So the most important stretch always becomes the one down the stretch. No matter what has happened prior, which team will make the best adjustments can find the path to victory. The smart teams realize it could be the path less traveled to that point.
Which is where the Rams detoured in the final 2 minutes on their way to a 91-86 victory, one which knocked the Buffs from the ranks of the unbeaten.
Allow a guest to come to your building and shoot 62.1 percent in the game, but in those final 120 seconds, make the stops needed to give yourself a chance; CU made just one of its final five shots.
Get outscored in the paint by a large margin – 56-20 – yet that’s where you go in the waning moments to get clutch offense with a pair of layups and a pull-up jumper from a guy who had been dropping daggers all afternoon.
Josh Pascarelli knows his strengths. He can also identify what’s necessary.
His jumper with 33 seconds remaining gave the Rams an 88-85 cushion, the last field goal the Rams would make in the game and the only one he hit inside the arc, just inside the shot clock expiring. Not that he needed to venture in there too often, considering he was 8-of-10 from deep on the night.
“I mean, I was really just trying to create something. At first, I was trying to get to a 3, not gonna lie,” he said. “But he bit, and it was like, all right, keep going and play basketball. It was just a good look, so I just did.”
He finished with a game-best 26 points, his eight 3s made tied for the second most in a game for a Ram, the 18 made by the team ranking third in program history for a game. That was what was working for Colorado State. Jace Butler hit a pair, and Kyle Jorgensen and Brandon Rechsteiner made a trio each.
Pascarelli said he didn’t realize how many he made until he looked at the stat sheet in front of him. Please excuse him, because he hasn’t missed many in the past two games – just two – and is now hitting at a 53-percent clip on the season on 66 attempts.
Excuse coach Ali Farokhmanesh, too.
“No, I didn’t. The last (game) he made eight 3s and I didn’t really realize it,” Farokhmanesh said. “Every time he shoots it, I just think it’s going in, so, I’m surprised he missed two. When you go eight, what, is he 16 for his last 18? That’s decent.
“But that’s what we’ve told these guys. And I think (radio announcer Adam) Nigon kind of asked me that question out there: Do you want to shoot that many 3s? And, yeah, if we go 18-for-35, I do. And most nights, I feel like we’re right there to be able to do that. We’re hard to guard when you’ve got five to six guys out there that all shoot over 40 percent and are also willing to share the ball with one another.”
Which Jorgensen reminded Pascarelli of in the presser, that somebody had to pass it to him and, oh, by the way, which was the big man a couple of times.
He did his part as well y finishing with 21 points and grabbing seven rebounds to lead the team, though at that moment, the three assists were what he was stressing.
“Let’s just say on most of those 3s, he’s got a pretty good passer,” Jorgensen said.
When a teammate is hot, they get fed. When a team is pushed toward a corner, it regroups. At least the Rams did. Some of it was making adjustments through coaches. Others were made on the fly by the players themselves.
Farokhmanesh recalled a play where the Rams were picked clean on a play, leading to an easy layup by CU. Next trip down the floor, he said Jevin Muniz took it upon himself to control the action instead, resulting in the play working and a basket for the hosts.
The Rams have counted on him to do such things – actually, most things – as his 12 points, six rebounds and four assists would attest.
For a team which doesn’t like to play zone much, Farokhmanesh felt that was what was needed in those closing moments, assessing the different look took some of the flow out of the Colorado offense and forced them to think.
It allowed Colorado State to seize the moment. Feed off the crowd. Pounce on a rival.
“I think at the end of the day, these games come down to just who can just outplay the other, who can just outsmart the other,” Jorgensen said. “It’s loud in there. You can’t really hear the plays. So at the end of the day, it just comes down to who’s base is better. We work on our base every single day, and at the end of the day, that’s what led to our last stretch.
“We don’t really go zone that much as a team, but we threw in that zone and they threw two lobs, and then we got a steal. We got three stops in a row. So the game’s all about runs, and as long as you just keep your head high and keep pushing, man, who knows what happens.”
When you’re the team which plays best down the stretch – which the Rams did – you celebrate. You let the student section rush the floor. Then you bask in the glow.
