Aggies suffer gut-wrenching loss to Rams, end NCAA Tournament aspirations

LAS VEGAS — March breeds madness.

On Thursday evening at the Thomas & Mack Center, Utah State found out the hard way for the first time in four years.

After 10 lead changes and four ties, Colorado State led 51-49 with 41 seconds left in the quarterfinal game of the Mountain West Tournament. Following a missed free-throw attempt by Colorado State's Kendle Moore, Mountain West Player of the Year David Roddy picked up a foul on a rebound attempt to send Justin Bean to the line with 12.3 seconds left.

Bean hit both free-throw attempts to tie the game.

Colorado State had one more attempt to avoid overtime. Pushing the ball down the court, Isaiah Stevens got a step on Steven Ashworth and dished it to Chandler Jacobs, who hit a game-winning layup with 1.8 seconds left. The Aggies attempted a three-quarters court buzzer beater to no avail as the Rams walked away with a 53-51 win.

The crushing defeat knocks Utah State out of the conference tournament and erases any hope of a fourth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance. In a year where Utah State went 2-7 in games decided by 3 points or less, the final loss may the toughest.

Aggies coach Ryan Odom was teary eyed on the podium after the game but managed to sneak in a few chuckles as he recognized the tough outcome of the game"s result.

"Yeah, I mean, I'd say we all — all coaches remember the losses more than they remember the great wins, right?" Odom said. "It does drive you, and hopefully it pushes you to future success.

"They did everything that we asked them to do all season," Odom added about his players. "They went for it all season, and that was really all that mattered. You can't control the results and how things end in a given game."

One uncontrollable moment of the Thursday night game, in particular, may be difficult to forget.

After Rylan Jones made a layup to cut the deficit to two with under a minute to play, Ashworth got a steal with 17 seconds left. He dished it to Bean, who raced down the court and was called for a charge as he made contact with Stevens, who appeared to slide his feet and lean into Bean.

"First thing I thought was just get up the court, sprint and try to get to the rim, get a layup," Bean said. "Saw two guys come in front of me and I tried to split them. And I thought I had the angle and they were — I thought they were late. But, again, that's just basketball. You can't blame the refs, obviously."

The way the game went — a close and hard-fought battle between two teams — there's little surprise one of its defining moments was a bang-bang play down low.

Open looks were hard to come by for both sides as the teams shot poorly from beyond the arc — much of the action was in the paint. The game was also whistle heavy, with little transition opportunities.

Defensively, the Aggies double-teamed Roddy in the paint, holding him to nine shots and 13 points. They switched heavily in man-to-man, forcing the Rams to beat them off the dribble. Stevens was the only other Rams player in double figures with 14, including a fadeaway bank shot to take a 48-47 lead with 1:57 remaining in the game.

"I thought it was a really good college basketball game overall," Odom said. "Points were hard to come by. Defense was pretty solid. The intensity was, you know, what you would want in a tournament setting."

Collectively, the Rams were 3 of 18 from 3-point range on the night, including 0 of 9 in the second half, and finished the game shooting 42.6% from the field.

And yet, Utah State couldn't take advantage. The Aggies were just 1 of 15 from 3-point range as athletic Rams guards kept the Aggies shooters in check — open looks were met with hesitancy.

The emphasis for Utah State was to get the ball to the rim. Brandon Horvath finished with 18 points on 8-of-13 shooting and Bean was 5 of 15 for 15 points. The Aggies crashed the offensive glass and got 11 offensive rebounds and 11 second-chance points.

"Certainly, we left it all out there on the glass," Bean said. "We were crashing the glass really hard there at the end — both teams were. And ultimately, shots just didn't fall like we wanted to, especially from three. But like I said, that's basketball."

The game opened with Colorado State coming out hot as Roddy put Etyle-Rock on a poster to give the Rams an early 5-point lead four minutes into the game. The Aggies immediately responded with a rising slam from Bairstow in transition moments later.

Utah State switched heavily on its defensively matchups, often double-teaming Roddy in the paint and consistently rotating to keep the perimeter in check.

The Aggies eventually took a 5-point lead with just over five minutes left to play in the first half, and that's where the offensive woes started for Utah State. The team failed to score a point the rest of the half and Colorado State went on a 9-0 run to take a 29-25 lead the into halftime break.

In the second half, Utah State mostly abandoned the 3-point looks, with most of the offense coming from the post.

"It felt like there were a lot of lead changes there late in the second half," Bean said. "Just really back and forth."

"I was telling the guys in (the locker room) that basketball, it's just a game at the end of the day," Bean said. "But everyone that came in there and played and competed, they treated it like it was more than that; they treated it like it was their life they were playing for. And so I'm just proud of the effort from everyone that got out there and the guys that were on the bench. And, unfortunately, we didn't get the win, but that's just basketball."

While the season is over, the Aggies will await a potential invitation to the NIT, a consolation tournament for March Madness.

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