The key defensive stops simply never came.

The Colorado State men’s basketball team was unable to ever stop the flow of buckets from the University of Denver.

It proved costly Nov. 21 as the Rams were levelled with a damaging 83-81 home defeat to the huge underdog Pioneers.

CSU (4-1) entered the game unbeaten and high-flying as one of the top offensive teams in the country. Players said this week the focus was to turn around on the defensive end of the court.

It didn’t happen in this one, though. DU (2-3) shot 51% from the floor and 48% (10-21) from the 3-point line.

The numbers don’t fully tell the story, either. It felt like DU always had a key response when it seemed like CSU (an 18.5-point betting favorite in the game) was going to take over.

CSU was down 10 points early in the

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