Colorado State came into the contest Wednesday against looking to set a school record, and they certainly looked focused from the tip.
Center Colton Iverson controlled the tip, and seemingly everything after that in the first half. He dunked the ball on the Rams first possession and made a physical and-one layup trip down the floor, and boxed out the smaller Falcons with ease. Frontcourt mate Pierce Hornung joined in on the fun, taking the ball to the hoop with his usual reckless abandon, and together they combined for 19 points and nine rebounds in the first half.
CSU led 34-19 at the break by enforcing their inside presence and moving the ball around well.
In the second half, Wes Eikmeier's stellar shooting pushed the Rams lead to 25, when he hit his first three shots, all from beyond the arc. They went back to pounding the ball inside and Hornung, Iverson, and Greg Smith scored by attacking the rim. The Rams controlled the paint, just as they have all season long, out-rebounding Air Force 40-19 while out-scoring them in the box 38-20 and won easily 79-40.
Eikmeier's 17 led the team in scoring while Hornung's nine rebounds were a team-high.
"It was a good win, but we could have done things better," Iverson explained. "We started off the game giving up three layups. But I thought we bounced back and played a pretty complete game. Played long periods of time without too many mistakes and that was key."
"Coach always tells us that's what really good teams do, they don't get too high or get too low and let -- they call it scoreboard watching -- don't let that affect the way you play," Eikmeier said.
Head coach Larry Eustachy echoed those sentiments, "Our thing is to stay on an even keel, which is to not get too high or too low...I told our team, on a given night this team could beat any team I've ever had, and that's saying something."
The win improves Colorado State's record to 14-3 overall and 1-1 in the Mountain West, while it's a new school record 23rd straight home win. The old school record was 22 straight, set from 1960-62. On top of that, it was a school record for the largest margin of victory (39 points) over a Mountain West opponent for the Rams.
Next up for CSU is UNLV (14-3, 1-1) Saturday at 5 p.m. MT at Moby Arena.
Rich Kurtzman is a freelance journalist. You can follow Rich on twitter or facebook for all your CSU Rams news and opinion.
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