The Colorado State men’s basketball team used a strong shooting performance to defeat Air Force, 91-74, on Tuesday at Clune Arena in Colorado Springs.
CSU shot 54.5% from the field, 53.8% from beyond the arc and 80.6% (29-of-36) from the free throw line to win its second game in a row, having defeated San Jose State on Saturday at Moby Arena.
It is the first time the Rams have won back-to-back games since they won five in a row before the beginning of Mountain West Conference play in November and December.
With the win over the Falcons, the Rams improved to 14-10 overall and 5-8 in the MWC.
The Rams were led offensively in the victory by Brandon Rechsteiner, who scored 14 points. Kyle Jorgensen added 13 and Jevin Muniz, Carey Booth and Augustinas Kiudulas each had 12.
The first half was tightly contested until Kiudulas made a free throw to break a 30-30 tie with 4:35 left before the break. The Rams never trailed again.
CSU led by as many as nine points late in the first half and took a 47-39 lead into halftime.
The Rams spent the second half extending their lead, going ahead by as many as 22 points with 3:25 left in the game when a 3-pointer by Jorgensen gave CSU a 86-64 advantage.
Air Force was able to cut the Rams’ lead down to 17 points at the final buzzer.
The Rams outrebounded the Falcons 26-25 and forced the Falcons into 13 turnovers, which CSU turned into 14 points. The Rams also got 39 points from their bench.
CSU will be back in action Saturday when the Rams host Wyoming at 2 p.m. at Moby Arena.
