Takeaways from Colorado State basketball's shocking loss to Northern Colorado

The big in-state rivalry game is coming Thursday, Dec. 8, against the University of Colorado in Boulder.

And the Colorado State men’s basketball game will limp into it following a shocking 88-83 loss to Northern Colorado on Saturday before 5,439 fans at Moby Arena.

The loss was the third in the past five games for the Rams (6-3).

Daylen Kountz scored 27 points, while Dalton Knecht and Matt Johnson II had 18 apiece for UNC (4-5).

Senior forward Patrick Cartier took advantage of his opportunities in the paint to score a season-high 23 points to lead the Rams. Guard Isaiah Stevens added 20 in just his second game back after missing the first seven while recovering from a broken foot.

So what went wrong for the Rams?

Here are a few key takeaways from CSU's loss:

UNC shoots lights-out

Although the Bears were playing about 30 miles away from their home arena in Greeley, they made themselves right at home in Moby.

UNC shot 58.6% from the floor in the first half to build a 37-34 lead at the break, then hit its first seven 3-pointers and 9 of 11 shots overall in the first seven minutes to stretch its lead to as many as 15 points.

Knecht, a senior from Thornton, led the way, making 3 of 3 from beyond the arc. But he wasn’t alone. Riley Abercrombie hit two, while Johnson and Kountz each added one.

All of a sudden, that 3-point halftime lead had grown to a 66-51 advantage.

“I thought we just looked a little cool, a little casual,” Medved said. “I haven’t seen that from this group. I wish I knew why, I don’t know why. I think that’s what happened. We didn’t really take much away from them at all. This is a team that doesn’t really go to the offensive glass and we gave up 15 second-chance points. We gave up 2s, we gave up 3s.

“We just didn’t play with the intensity we needed, and when you do that, you’re playing with fire.”

UNC shot 57% for the game while hitting 9 of 21 shots from 3-point range.

No previous CSU opponent had shot better than the 43.5% that Loyola Marymount hit Nov. 30 in an 87-71 loss to the Rams at Moby.

“We just needed to put the fire out,” Stevens said. “We didn’t, and they capitalized on that opportunity.”

Furious comeback falls short

CSU didn’t go down without a fight, though.

The Rams came storming back late in the game, even taking a brief 1-point lead on a James Moors free throw with 4 minutes remaining.

But Moors missed the second, and the Rams gave up two free throws to Kountz 26 seconds later at the other end of the floor to regain a lead they held the rest of the game.

CSU went 5 of 5 from the free-throw line in the final 1:09 but missed four of its final six shots from the floor.

CSU’s offense wasn’t the problem, with the Rams shooting a solid 51.7 percent from the floor, including 50% of their 3-pointers (11 of 22).

It was the lack of defense.

"We were not very good," Medved said. "That’s not what we’re trying to do is go out here and just try and outscore people and make it like an AAU game, because that’s what it felt like."

What's next for the Rams

College basketball teams across the country often have a game or two that get away from them, given that they play 30 or more each season, CSU coach Niko Medved said.

So the Rams will study the film to make sure they know what went wrong, fix what they can and get back to work, he said.

Their next game is that battle with CU at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 8, in Boulder.

"We haven’t had one of these in a while," Medved said. "I think the challenge for us now is, OK, we’ve got to ask ourselves why that happened, and we’ve got to learn from it.

"No one feels sorry for you. These things happen. We've got, obviously, a huge game Thursday night on the road, and we’ve got to learn from it and get back to work. And, if we do that and figure out we don’t win being cool here, we win because we try to outwork and out-team people. Clearly we didn’t do that here today."

CSU's only remaining home game before beginning Mountain West play is 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 11, against Division II Peru (Nebraska) State.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Takeaways from CSU basketball's shocking loss to Northern Colorado