Birch’s six blocks for Rebels pivotal in slowing talented CSU front line

Not many teams can come into the Thomas & Mack Center, play 20 minutes of basketball against UNLV and expect to come out with a win.

But Colorado State nearly did it Wednesday.

The No. 22 Rams outplayed UNLV in the second half and nearly pulled it out at the end. But Daniel Bejarano’s open 3-point try in the final seconds failed to drop, making Anthony Marshall a hero and the Rebels 61-59 survivors after Marshall nailed a jumper with nine seconds to go to break a 59-all tie.

“We missed some key plays late,” Colorado State coach Larry Eustachy said as his team squandered a golden opportunity to pull even with first-place New Mexico atop the Mountain West standings. “But we’ll learn from this and be better for it.”

UNLV became the first team this season to outrebound Colorado State as the Rebels held a 38-31 edge on the boards. That had a lot to do with the outcome. So did Khem Birch’s six blocked shots. The UNLV sophomore did a great job most of the night in protecting the basket and not letting Colton Iverson, Pierce Hornung and Greg Smith dominate inside the way they normally do.

“They were ready for us,” Eustachy said of the Rebels, who got to the 20-win mark (20-7) and remained tied for third place with San Diego State at 7-5. “Dave Rice did a great job preparing his team. But I was bothered by our overall play in the first half.”

The Rams were awful in the opening 20 minutes, making just 1 of 9 3-point tries, getting outrebounded 20-11 and trailing 32-21 at halftime.

“We’ve had this problem before,” Eustachy said. “We started slow at Colorado. We started slow at New Mexico and San Diego State, and it was the same thing (Wednesday). We can’t seem to get over the hump in these games.”

Whatever Eustachy might have said to his team at intermission seemed to work because Colorado State was a different team in the second half. The Rams played smarter, harder and battled back to take a 55-53 lead with 3:18 to go. Bejarano, who averages 6.3 points off the bench, was a major catalyst with 12 points.

“I just tried to let the game come to me,” Bejarano said of his success against UNLV’s defense, which was more concerned with keeping Dorian Green, Wes Eikmeier and Greg Smith in check. “I’m the sixth man for a reason. It’s my job to give the team a boost off the bench.”

But Bejarano missed a key blockout on Bryce Dejean-Jones on a Marshall missed 3-pointer, and Jones’ putback with 1:07 remaining got the Rebels even and set the stage for Marshall’s heroics.

Still, Bejarano and the Rams had one last chance for redemption. Instead of calling timeout and letting UNLV set up its defense after Marshall’s jumper gave the Rebels the lead, Eustachy let his players go on their own for the final nine seconds.

As the clock ticked down and everyone was in scramble mode, the ball found its way to Bejarano, who was camped out on the right wing. He had an open look, and as the ball was sent on its way to the basket, he thought it was going in.

“I really wanted that shot,” he said.

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter @stevecarprj.