3 takeaways: Colorado State men’s basketball surges past Louisiana Tech with second-half comeback

A little disjointed and a little physically overwhelmed.

That was the quick summary of the Colorado State men’s basketball team’s opening game for nearly the first 25 minutes.

The Rams had some bright moments but were unable to keep visiting Louisiana Tech out of the paint or off the boards.

CSU trailed by 11 partway through the second half.

Then the tidal wave hit Louisiana Tech.

The Rams suddenly started to lock down on defense, turned to the hyper-efficient offense CSU is known for and the Rams raced to an impressive 81-73 comeback victory.

Here are three takeaways from the CSU win in front of 4,331 fans at Moby Arena.

Breakaway surge

CSU (1-0) trailed 53-42 with 14 minutes to go, and Louisiana Tech started the second half 7-7 shooting.

Then the Rams turned it on. First, an 8-0 run that became a 12-1 run and then a 17-1 run.

By the 7-minute mark, CSU was seemingly in control and grew a double-digit lead with an extended 28-6 run. Louisiana Tech shot 9-28 the rest of the way after the hot-shooting start to the second half.

"We were able to get out in transition, I want to say we were able to get more layups than earlier in the game," point guard Isaiah Stevens said. "After that, we're flowing, doing what we do best, which is sharing the ball, playing with each other and finding ways to score."

It was truly breathtaking at times.

"I felt like we were going to make a run. I thought when we did and the crowd got going a little bit, I thought we grabbed the momentum when we had to and we never looked back," CSU coach Niko Medved said.

CSU shot a staggering 64% in the second half.

Newbies impress

If the team gave out game balls like in football, the first one would probably go to Joel Scott.

The big man is a graduate transfer from Black Hills State, where he was the NCAA Division II Player of the Year.

Uh, yeah, he can play at this level, too.

Scott had a thunderous one-handed dunk on CSU’s first possession of the second half. He had several key defensive plays, and he seemed to find a big bucket whenever CSU needed one.

He finished the game with 18 points on 6-for-9 shooting to go with four rebounds and two blocks.

"I tried to let it flow as much as I could. There's always a little pressure coming into a new program, but these guys made it really easy," Scott said.

His fellow Colorado Springs native Nique Clifford, a transfer from Colorado, had a few moments of his own to introduce himself to the home crowd.

Clifford scored 16 points and hit both 3-point attempts, including helping spark the huge second-half run.

Stevens started slow but finished with 15 points and 10 assists for his 13th career point-assist double-double.

Ready for the rafters: Isaiah Stevens, McKenna Hofschild to put No. 4 in CSU record books

Defensive shift, rebounding woes

Louisiana Tech (0-1) absolutely dominated CSU on the glass in the first half, leading the Rams 24-10 in rebounding in the first 20 minutes.

Medved made a second-half tweak by severely cutting down his rotation to help the defense.

He relied on Stevens, Scott, Clifford, Josiah Strong, Jalen Lake, Joe Palmer and Patrick Cartier as his main group. Medved said when the Rams were down double-digits, he felt he had to stick with that core to start launching a comeback.

CSU began switching on defense to close gaps that Louisiana Tech had been exploiting. It worked. Louisiana Tech scored just 15 points in the final 10 minutes.

The rebounding woes were alarming, especially considering CSU's added size and strength and domination on the glass in preseason closed-door scrimmages against Minnesota and Oregon. It's one key improvement needed moving forward as Louisiana Tech won the boards battle 39-23.

"That's the thing I'm most disappointed about. I think that we have in practice and in our two scrimmages against big teams, we have been really good on the glass. Today, we were not good in any way," Medved said.

Despite that, CSU picks up the important first win.

The Rams now host Wright State at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10, at Moby.

Follow sports reporter Kevin Lytle on Twitter and Instagram @Kevin_Lytle.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Colorado State men’s basketball surges past Louisiana Tech with second-half comeback