Niko Medved’s first season as the head coach at Colorado State (12-20) ended Wednesday afternoon in the first round of the Mountain West Basketball 2019 Championship with a 66-57 loss to Boise State.
The 8th-seeded Broncos were led by Derrick Alston with 17 points. Zach Haney added 16 along with a game-high seven rebounds.
Fifth year senior J.D. Paige had a game-high 25 points while Nico Carvacho added 12 on 6-of-7 shooting. The 9th-seeded Rams shot 46.9 percent from the field and 30 percent from distance.
"I'm just proud of the way that I've grown this whole season," Paige said following his last game as a Ram. "I know that we lost and things like that but I'm really just ecstatic the way I've grown as a player."
Boise State never trailed in the game, opening the contest on a 5-0 run and using a massive 10-0 run midway into the first to go into the half up 33-26.
Colorado State had a strong chance to take over the lead to start the second. Following a turn over by Haney, Paige cashed in on the other side for an and-one opportunity, making it 42-40 ballgame with 11:31 left on the clock.
However, Paige missed from the charity stripe and the Broncos extended their lead on a 9-0 run.
"It was a frustrating game. We had a lot of opportunities to maybe even take the lead or seize it. We just couldn't kind of get over that hump," Medved said in the post-game press conference. "But I thought the guys kept battling and fought through some adversity. Boise was just the better team today.
Boise State (13-19) advances to the second round of the tournament where they will face top-seeded Nevada on Thursday at 1 p.m. (MT).
