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The Colorado State men’s basketball team opened its three games in five days homestand with a 76-65 victory over Maryland-Eastern Shore, Nov. 23. With the victory, the Rams improved to 3-1 on the young season, including 3-0 at Moby Arena, while the Hawks slipped to 0-5.
The visitors got the early lead, going up by as many as six in the first five minutes, but CSU didn’t allow that to stand, taking the lead for good with 8:36 to go in the first half on a 3-pointer by junior Devocio Butler. That bucket spurred a 12-1 run over the next 3:17 and a lead that CSU would never relinquish. The Hawks did cut it to just three right before halftime but Colorado State got it quickly to 10 early in the second stanza and never let it below eight the rest of the way.
The Rams shot a solid 52.7 percent on field goal attempts, including a season-best six 3-pointers. UMES was limited to just 42.6 percent from the floor, including 22.2 percent on threes. Colorado State won the battle of the boards, 38-27, and had a season-best 18 assists to just 11 turnovers.
The Rams had four players in double figures, led by junior Che Bob’s double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds. Senior Emmanuel Omogbo also had a double-double with 11 points and 10 boards along with a career-best four assists.
“”Like coach has said, we’re a better inside team than last year,” Omogbo said postgame. “If we just get the ball inside, we’re going to find guys. Che [Bob] can get assists, I can get assists, Nico [Carvacho] can pass the ball. Everyone on the inside can pass the ball, and that makes it really easy for our guards to play off of us.”
Redshirt-sophomore J.D. Paige had a career-best five assists along with 13 points, while junior Devocio Butler hit double figures with 10 points. CSU also had eight blocks on the game, led by Bob with four and redshirt-freshman Nico Carvacho with three. For Maryland Eastern Shore, Bakari Copeland and Logan McIntosh had 15 points each.
