The Dish: Rams Fall in NIT Semifinals - CSURams.com

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By: Mike Brohard

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FRISCO, Texas – Only three teams in the country will end the season with a victory, thanks to the NIT playing a third-place game on Sunday.
 
Colorado State has a chance to be one of them, though it's not the game they wanted when the postseason began. Memphis made life hard for the Rams on both ends of the floor, with the Tigers living up to their defensive resume and shooting extremely well in a 90-67 victory in the semifinal round at the Comerica Center on Saturday.
 
"It's going to be tough, but at the same time, that's what we want to do and that's what we need to do, just for the program, for the players," guard Isaiah Stevens said. "This is a great opportunity for us to end our season on a win. I think guys are going to be excited to get this taste out of their mouths and end this season on a win."
 
The Rams will play at 1 p.m., tipping against the loser of the Mississippi State-Louisiana Tech game. The championship game will be played at 11 a.m.
 
Memphis, which ranks at the top team in defensive efficiency, came at the Rams with pressure, which they expected. It only led to 13 turnovers, but for the second consecutive game, Colorado State struggled through a sub-par shooting performance, accentuated by an inability to finish at the rim, which has rarely been a problem.
 
The Rams shots just 38.5 percent in the game, and despite doing better behind the arc (9-of-27) and was outscored 34-16 in the paint.
 
The Tigers were the opposite. They hit from all over the place, hitting better than 50 percent from the field and behind the arc.
 
Colorado State's offensive woes might have been expected to a degree, with Memphis' style of play being so different and one day to prepare. But as coach Niko Medved noted, he felt his team handled the pressure up until the point of truth.
 
"They force you to play a lot of one-on-ones, and guys have to make plays," Medved said. "I thought in the first half we had a number of opportunities to finish in the paint and we didn't. And then I thought we didn't do a very good job of attacking to pass. That was probably my biggest disappointment. I thought we missed too many guys and clearly, we didn't knock down enough open shots."
 
David Roddy led the team with 18 points, but he started off slow, making just one of eight shots in the first half before heating up a bit in the second. The Rams not only started slow, but had a big lull in the first half where they went nearly six minutes without a field goal as Memphis took the lead on the strength of a 20-2 run.
 
Colorado State was able to get the gap down to six by halftime, then Roddy hit a 3 to open the second half, but that was as close as they would get. From there, Memphis took off, with the Rams' largest issue being able to get stops.
 
"I feel like we let their shooters get going kind of early, especially (Lester) Quinones," said Stevens, the lone Ram to shoot well as he finished with 17 points. "Then (Landers Nolley II) got going later on in the game. Once they start playing with confidence, they're a tough team to beat. We let them get going, and I feel that was part of the reason why we weren't able to get the win today."
 
Nolley II took off in the second half, scoring 24 of his game-leading 27 in the final 20 minutes, making 7-of-11 of his 3-pointers. DeAndre Williams added 21 on a strong shooting night, while Quinones finished with 17.
 
Again, the Rams knew who was going to let it fly, they just didn't play as well defensively, considering they generally hold opponents to 30 percent behind the arc, 41 percent overall.
 
"Quinones and Nolley II, who we know are shooters, I just felt we let them catch and shoot the ball too often," Medved said. "I don't know why. I think our 3-point defense has been pretty good. We did a good job with their initial actions. I thought we made some really poor decisions on recognizing personnel and who we needed to make dribble and who we wanted to gap and make shoot.
 
"To their credit, they made us pay. They knocked down a lot of shots."
 
That early success, he noted, only emboldened the Tigers to keep pushing forward.
 
To Stevens, the only response is to flush the result and bounce back. It won't be easy, but Medved has seen his team respond to a negative in a strong fashion already.
 
Sunday is a chance to finish strong, which also represents a strong start to the following season.
 
"I think it's huge," he said. "This has been a season with challenges unlike any other, and it's going to be a challenge tomorrow. You're disappointed, you didn't play your best today and how can you pick yourself up tomorrow and play. It's a huge challenge, but it's a huge game and a huge opportunity for us to end the season on a great note.
 
"These guys have been able to do that all year, step up to these kind of challenges, but that's our next one and this will be the last one of this season. We've got to get up and look forward to tomorrow."
 

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The Dish: Rams Fall in NIT Semifinals - CSURams.com
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