Rams Basketball beats Buffs 77-62 in biggest win of their season
By Rich Kurtzman | December 11, 2009
The Rams (6-3) defeated their biggest in-state rival Thursday night in the Colorado Buffs (6-4) 77-62 on their home-court, Moby Arena. CSU beat another Colorado team their last time out, Sunday against Denver U. (64-59) and they started a winning streak tonight with two straight wins.
CSU came out backed by their largest crowd of 2009, as 5,293 Moby Maniacs were loud and proud of their Rams. But, CU took the momentum early in the contest, going up as much as five (7-12) with five minutes gone in the first half. CSU stormed back though, tied the game at 14, and went on a 19-7 run to stretch their lead to 26-19 with 6:54 until halftime. And even though the Buffs tried to hang tough, the Rams took a 10 point lead (36-26) heading into half. CSU was led by Travis Franklin’s 16, and Dorian Green’s eight points as the two made up a dynamic inside-outside scoring threat.
Both teams were rusty coming out of their locker rooms, but Franklin kept the Rams scoring and they beefed up their lead to 15, at 47-32 with just under 15 minutes left in the game. CU was more effective scoring in the second half, but they couldn’t stop CSU when they needed to and the teams traded baskets for most of the half. The Buffs finally got the lead under 10, but with less than four minutes remaining it was too little too late. The closest CU would get was seven points, at 69-62, but they couldn’t score again and eventually lost 77-62.
The Rams shot a solid 42.3 percent from the field, but their best effort was on the defensive side. CSU held the Buffs to only 37.3 percent shooting, and the Rams had six blocks and 11 steals in the game. CSU completely dominated the boards, out-rebounding CU 41-27, and the Rams hit 30-39 free throws on the night. The Rams player of the game was Franklin who had a double-double of 22 points and 10 rebounds—just two points shy of his career high. Green played stellar as well, with 21 points and five boards.
The impact of this win is three-fold, the Rams biggest victory of this young season.
First, CSU stepped up and defeated a better Big 12 team in CU. The game works as a confidence booster for this inexperienced squad, and may lead to more big wins down the road.
Second, it brought back many Moby Maniacs to Men’s Basketball. Lots of upperclassmen were at the game, but so were some youngsters. For a freshman friend of mine, Haley, it was the first basketball game she’s attended and she said it was, “A blast!! I love basketball!” and that she will definitely be going back to more games soon. Storming the court tonight made memories for those who did, and the atmosphere will have many more coming to see the Rams play.
Third, it acts as what @ibleedcsugreen said earlier tonight, “Timmy gets his signature win (thus far). Hopefully many more to come!” Head Coach Tim Miles now has a big win under his belt as the Rams leader and he can use it as a building block for more huge wins in the future.
And even though CSU is off to their best start in three years when they began 9-0, the Rams still sit in sixth place in the Mountain West currently. CSU’s Men’s team has a chance to improve on their record starting Saturday as they host Montana at 7:00 p.m. MT.
To find tickets in the third game of the Rams’ four-game home-stand against the Grizzlies, call 800-491-RAMS.
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Time: December 11, 2009, 12:36 am
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Comment from John Livingston
Time: December 11, 2009, 10:20 am
honestly who storms the court for this? a further display of the classless fans that reside in Fort Collins…not even UNC greeley stormed the court after they beat CSU…and isnt CSU traditionally a better bball school than CU anyway? act like u have won a game before CSU
Comment from josh d
Time: December 11, 2009, 11:56 am
this shows that CSU has beat the buffs in both football and basketball. i guess what there is to be proud of is CSU’s record against CU (35-85), looks like they have alot of work to do to be able to claim to be a better team. Just their 27th win in their home court out of 57 attempts. So, verdict, the only reason these rams would have a reason to storm is achieving only their 3 win of the season compared to the buffs 6!
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