SAN DIEGO — A half away from securing a resounding road win on Tuesday night, the Colorado State men’s basketball team instead went into a deep freeze.
After jumping out to a 14-point halftime lead, the Rams offense was held without a single basket over the final 9:26 of the game to fall 71-55 to San Diego State inside a rocking Viejas Arena.
The defeat ended a four-game win streak for the Rams (19-6, 7-5 Mountain West), who started the week one spot outside the AP Top 25. CSU dropped two losses behind first-place Utah State in the Mountain West Conference standings, with the Aggies (20-4, 8-3) set to visit Fort Collins on Saturday afternoon. The Aztecs (19-6, 8-4) jumped ahead of CSU with the win.
The Rams led by as many as 14 points at the start of the second half, but scored just 11 points over the final 20 minutes as they shot 12.0% (3 of 25) from the field.
Isaiah Stevens’ 3-pointer put CSU ahead 49-37 with 16:01 left in the game. But the Rams managed just one more field goal — a Josh Strong layup off a Stevens assist with 9:26 left — the rest of the game.
Jaedon LeDee’s scored 22 of his 27 points in the second half and grabbed six rebounds to lead San Diego State. Lamont Butler scored 11 points and added 10 rebounds and three steals. Darrion Trammell was 4-of-11 shooting (3 for 6 from 3-point range) to finish with 11 points.
The Rams were led in scoring by Strong, who finished with 14 points. Patrick Cartier added 12 points for Colorado State. In addition, Stevens had 11 points and five assists.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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