Brandon Rechsteiner scored 21 points to lead Colorado State to a 76-70 victory over Wichita State on Thursday at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas.
CSU (5-2) will face South Florida in the fifth-place game at 2:30 p.m. Friday.
The Rams never trailed in the first half and led by as many as 21 points when Rechsteiner hit one his career-high seven 3-pointers to give CSU a 47-26 lead with 1:04 remaining before halftime.
Wichita State scored the final four points of the first 20 minutes to cut the CSU advantage to 47-30 at the break.
In the first half, the Rams shot 76% from the field and 50% from behind the arc. During one stretch in the first 20 minutes, the Rams made 15 straight field goals.
Carey Booth led the Rams with 12 points in the first half and Kyle Jorgensen had 10.
After going ahead 60-40 on a 3-pointer by Josh Pascarelli with 14:32 left in the game, the Shockers made a run. With just under five minutes remaining, they cut the CSU lead to five points at 70-65.
The Rams didn’t let them get closer than that.
In addition to Rechsteiner’s 21 points, Jorgensen had 16 and Booth had 14. CSU shot only 37% from the field in the second half to bring their percentage for the game to 55.8.
