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Colorado State matches largest-ever win over rival Wyoming

By Tyler King February 16, 2025 | updated 6 months ago

Nique Clifford, CSU Rams vs. Boise State

Colorado State fifth-year senior guard Nique Clifford inbounds the ball during a game against Boise State on Wednesday at Moby Arena in Fort Collins.

Tyler King, The Denver Gazette

Colorado State flipped the script.

After falling behind early in their last game on the road at Utah State, the Rams never really recovered and closed a pivotal three-game stretch against the top three teams in the Mountain West with a record of 1-2.

With the program’s biggest rival in the building on a snowy Saturday afternoon in Fort Collins, CSU was the one jumping out to a big, early lead over Wyoming en route to a dominant, 88-53 win at Moby Arena.

The loss against the Aggies earlier in the week featured something Rams coach Niko Medved had never seen before when Utah State made its first seven 3-pointers, building up a 20-point lead before the midway point of the first half.

It took CSU less than 12 minutes to do the same to the Cowboys.

“We just moved on (from Utah State) and we knew what this was today,” Medved said.

What it was the 244th edition of the Border War on the hardwood and it was a historic one as the Rams, with plenty of former players in attendance, matched their largest-ever win over the Pokes (an 83-48 win in Fort Collins in 2019).

“That’s a legacy they’ll never be able to take away from this team,” Medved said.

As Medved said postgame, his team’s defense paved the way for the big performance as the Rams held the Cowboys under 10 points until just over five minutes remaining in the opening half and built up a 25-point lead going into the locker room.

“I thought we were really engaged, made it really, really difficult on them,” Medved said. “It was kinda one of those nights where we got out to a lead early and we never looked back. I thought everyone was really good.”

Efficient offense helps, and CSU is going to be hard to beat on any night where Nique Clifford scores 22 points on an efficient 8-for-9 from the field and grabs 11 rebounds. But the Rams are at their best when their depth is on full display. Medved has the luxury of bringing someone like fifth-year wing Ethan Morton off the bench — someone who played four years at Purdue and was on last year’s Final Four team.

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Morton isn’t the volume scorer he was in high school, but he does a little bit of everything for CSU on both ends, scoring eight points, dishing out seven assists and recording a block and a steal on defense.

“He’s doing a great job of being aggressive at the rim, looking for his,” Medved said. “Guys do a great job of moving and cutting off of him. He’s terrific in transition. When he gets rebounds and he’s pushing, he does a great job of finding guys and guys understand how to get to space and know that Ethan will put it on ‘em. I expect that. Ethan’s a guy that’s played in some pretty big games on some pretty dang good games. Hopefully for him, he’s just kinda finding his stride in what we’re doing at the perfect time.”

The Rams know the time is now to start playing their best basketball. They’ve been trending in the right direction for much of conference play but need to take care of business and rack up some wins before the rematch against Utah State on March 1 at Moby Arena.

Completing the regular season sweep — and in blowout fashion — of Wyoming was the perfect start.

“We’re really proud of the fact that we swept Wyoming and we’re proud of the fact that we did it decisively,” Medved said.

GAME RECAP

Colorado State 88, Wyoming 53

What happened: The Rams (16-9, 10-4 Mountain West) blew out the Cowboys (11-15, 4-11 MW) in the 244th edition of the Border War on the hardwood. CSU matched its largest ever win over the program’s biggest rival, building off a dominant opening 10 minutes for a 35-point victory.

Star of the night: Nique Clifford continued to build his case for Mountain West player of the year with a cool 22 points on 8-for-9 shooting from the field and 3-for-4 from 3-point range to go with 11 rebounds and 5 assists. The fifth-year senior guard from Colorado Springs is once again averaging a double-double on the season (17.7 points and 10 rebounds per game).

Quotable: “Just the pride behind the game. It’s a rivalry game, Border War, and our mindset has just been right going into (these) games.” — Clifford on sweeping Wyoming in the regular season

Up next: The Rams remain at home to take on Nevada (15-10, 7-7 MW) on Tuesday at 7 p.m. with coverage on the Mountain West Network.

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