FORT COLLINS — Colorado State has become somewhat of a two-man show this season with seniors Gian Clavell and Emmanuel Omogbo emerging as two of the top five players in the Mountain West, each capable of carrying the Rams to victory on any given night.
But on Saturday those two took a back seat — or at least rode shotgun — to J.D. Paige.
The redshirt sophomore guard from Denver had perhaps his best game as a Ram, matching a career-high with 23 points to lead the team to a 78-62 victory over Fresno State at Moby Arena.
“J.D. changed the game,” CSU coach Larry Eustachy said. “Not only does he always guard, but he added something special today by going 7 for 11.
“I’m not sure what would’ve happened tonight if we didn’t have his extra offense, because we were really struggling to score.”
Paige did most of his damage in the final nine minutes of the first half, helping the Rams overcome a terrible start offensively in which they missed 14 of their first 17 shots from the field. He scored all 14 of his first-half points after the 9:07 mark, helping CSU turn a five-point deficit into a three-point lead.
He finished with a career-best five 3-pointers on seven attempts, four of which came in the first frame. It continued a remarkable improvement from the perimeter for the Rangeview High School product, who’s now 13 of 25 (52.0 percent) from behind the arc the past four games after shooting 24.7 percent the first 22 contests.
“My teammates were looking for me. They have tremendous confidence in me. I’m not going to let anybody down on my team,” Paige said.
He made his fourth 3 of the first half just before the buzzer, although it came at a cost as he was assessed a technical foul for unsportsmanlike conduct after the play. FSU’s Deshon Taylor made both technical free throws before the start of the second half to tie the game at 31, but the corner 3 by Paige to end the first half still seemed to give the Rams a boost, as they started the second stanza on a 14-2 run to blow it open.
“It was really, really big, because we were struggling a little bit on offense trying to get to the rim or make shots,” Nico Carvacho said of Paige. “He really carried us in the first half. He hit that big shot to give us the momentum going into the locker room, which was big for us,”
Clavell and Omogbo were also pretty good, scoring 19 and 17 points respectively, while Carvacho added six points and 11 rebounds. After three ties and six lead changes in the first half, the Rams dominated the final 20 minutes, using a 23-5 run to go up 18 midway through.
The convincing win helped CSU (17-9, 9-4) avenge its most lopsided loss of the season after the Bulldogs (14-11, 6-7) beat the Rams by 21 last month in Fresno, Calif. That turned out to be a bit of a turning point for CSU, with the Rams losing just once since then, winning six of their past seven to put themselves in prime position to win their first regular season title since 1990. With five games to play, they’re a half-game behind first-place Boise State (16-7, 9-3) and percentage points behind Nevada (8-3), which plays at San Diego State on Sunday.
“That’s the goal,” Paige said of a regular season MW title, something the program has never won. “We want nothing short of it, either.”
That the Rams are even contending for a championship is quite surprising given that they’ve been down to just seven scholarship players since the start of the spring semester on Jan. 21 with three players academically ineligible and three others sitting out as Division I transfers.
Eustachy said “the story to date is incredible” given the team’s lack of depth but cautioned the Rams have a tough slate ahead with two matchups still to play against rival Wyoming and road games at New Mexico and Nevada still on tap.
“We’ll be underdogs in at least three of the five,” he said. “But anything can happen.”
The tricky part for Eustachy will be trying to chase the regular season title, which only guarantees an NIT bid, and putting his team in the best possible position to win the MW tournament and secure the league’s only NCAA Tournament berth.
Eustachy said he’s been in a similar position before and vowed not to repeat the same mistake he made more than a decade ago.
“What happened in the second championship year, my ego was so big at Iowa State is that I burned the team out,” he said. “We had to beat Kansas at home, and they were loaded, and we barely won. But, we lost in the first round against Baylor in the conference tournament and we lost to Hampton as a No. 2 seed (in the NCAA Tournament).
“I just ran out of oil in that engine getting that team to go back-to-back, and it cost us big time at the end.”
Colorado State 78, Fresno State 62
FRESNO ST. (14-11)
Williams 1-4 0-0 2, Carter 3-4 0-0 6, D.Taylor 5-9 6-6 19, Hopkins 6-13 5-6 18, Watson 1-4 0-2 2, Grimes 3-4 2-2 8, McWilliams 0-3 2-2 2, Beddeo 1-1 0-0 2, Bittner 0-1 0-0 0, J.Taylor 1-6 0-0 3. Totals 21-49 15-18 62.
COLORADO ST. (17-9)
Omogbo 4-9 8-9 17, Carvacho 2-3 2-4 6, Clavell 5-17 5-9 19, Nixon 1-6 2-4 4, Paige 7-11 4-4 23, Koelliker 2-5 2-2 7, Sabino 0-0 0-0 0, Bonner 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 22-53 23-32 78.
Halftime — Colorado St. 31-29. 3-point goals — Fresno St. 5-16 (D.Taylor 3-5, Hopkins 1-1, J.Taylor 1-5, Bittner 0-1, Watson 0-2, McWilliams 0-2), Colorado St. 11-24 (Paige 5-7, Clavell 4-9, Koelliker 1-2, Omogbo 1-2, Bonner 0-1, Nixon 0-3). Fouled out — None. Rebounds — Fresno St. 32 (Watson 7), Colorado St. 31 (Carvacho 11). Assists — Fresno St. 7 (Williams, Hopkins 2), Colorado St. 16 (Nixon 6). Total fouls — Fresno St. 23, Colorado St. 15. Technicals — Paige. A — 5,233 (8,745).
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