Colorado State men’s basketball used a second-half surge to get past San Jose State and advance to the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Conference tournament Wednesday at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
Despite leading by five at halftime, the No. 10 seed Spartans pulled even with the Rams in the second half before No. 7 CSU was able to pull away and advance.
CSU will face No. 2 seed Nevada at 7 p.m. MT Thursday.
The Rams led 34-29 at the end of the first half after using a 15-0 run late in the period to turn a 25-19 deficit into a 34-25 lead. But with 13:38 left in the game, the Spartans tied it at 38.
The Rams went ahead by as many as five at 53-48 on a free throw by Joel Scott with 7:17 to go, but the Spartans wouldn’t go away. They tied the game at 54-54 with 5:39 left and then again 56-56 with 4:51 to go.
A layup by Patrick Cartier gave CSU a 58-56 lead with 3:59 to go and the Rams led the rest of the way, taking their largest lead at 70-60 on a free throw by Isaiah Stevens with 39 seconds left.
The teams then traded free throws in the final 30 seconds for the final outcome.
“I thought down the stretch in the last 5 to 6 minutes our guys executed beautifully, we made some big shots, we got the stops when we needed to,” CSU head coach Niko Medved said.
CSU was led by Scott’s 18 points. Joe Palmer was 4 of 5 from behind the 3-point line to add 14. Stevens recorded a double-double with 11 points and 10 assists while Nique Clifford finished with eight points and nine rebounds.
The Rams will now face a Nevada team that swept them during the regular season. The Wolf Pack won 77-64 in Reno on Jan. 24 and then handed CSU its only home conference loss, 77-74, on Feb. 27.