Rams use balanced offensive attack to defeat UCCS, 78-60, in exhibition contest

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FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Behind balanced scoring and a 31-point fourth quarter, the Colorado State women's basketball team nabbed a 78-60 victory over the UCCS Mountain Lions in an exhibition on Wednesday night from Moby Arena.

The Rams, winners of an unprecedented four consecutive regular-season Mountain West titles, entered the fourth quarter with a four point lead, but took a lead as large as 22 points in that explosive fourth quarter. Igniting that fourth-quarter run was freshman Lena Svanholm, who converted on back-to-back threes to start the period and finished the night with a team-high 14 points (4-of-8) in 17 minutes of play.

Freshman guard Grace Colaivalu tacked on a layup at the 8:21 mark, while Svanholm added another jumper and a pair of free throws as the Rams stretched that run to 12-0 with 6:42 to play. The Rams combined that run with effective defense, as they held UCCS without a point through nearly six minutes to start the fourth quarter to put a stranglehold on the game.

Fellow freshman Lore Devos joined Svanholm in double-digit scoring with 12 points in her Moby Arena debut. Senior guard Hannah Tvrdy finished Wednesday's action with a double-double, pairing 10 points with as many rebounds.

11 different Colorado State players scored against the Mountain Lions and seven tallied five points or more. Notably, Jordyn Edwards had a team high five assists and five points in her first action after suffering a season-ending injury early last season.

CSU started slow, trailing 23-15 after first quarter, but turned their slow start around heading into the second. The Rams combined 18 points on the offensive end with their best defensive quarter of the night, allowing the Mountain Lions only nine points on 2-of-15 shooting. The Rams took their 33-32 lead at halftime and extended it to 47-43 through three quarter before the breakout final period.

IN THEIR WORDS
Colorado State head coach Ryun Williams
"I thought they (UCCS) came out really shooting the basketball, and we were really soft on the ball early. That group that played the first quarter for us had no urgency on the basketball and we did not make them feel uncomfortable at all. I thought the second unit that came in - and we are quicker with them, JoJo (Jordyn Edwards), Gracie (Grace Colaivalu) - that group was really good and got us the lead at halftime. It was nice to see the young kids really play well in their first game of college basketball. A kid like Gracie, a kid like JoJo, a kid like Lena (Svanholm), a kid like Lore (Devos), a kid like Liah (Davis)…Liah had a good game. I thought the bright spot tonight was that the most urgent play came from our newest players, so that's exciting."

On showing depth during Wednesday night's game
"Yeah, that's what we wanted to get done tonight. You want to win the game, but we wanted to play with some different rotations and play everybody a fair amount of minutes so we could evaluate and see what their production is. Getting these kids, especially the new kids, on the floor and getting game minutes under their belt was critical tonight. There were some nice performances considering the circumstances."

NOTES
- Although exhibition stats do not count toward official season totals, Hannah Tvrdy's 10 rebounds eclipsed her current single-game career best of nine.
- 13 different Rams saw the floor on Wednesday night. 11 of them scored.
- Of those 11 Rams that scored, seven of them made at least one three-point basket.

UP NEXT
The Colorado State women's basketball team will open the 2017-18 season when it hosts the Idaho Vandals on Friday, Nov. 10. Tip time from Moby Arena is set for 5:30 p.m. MT.

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