The Colorado State Rams have nothing to lose as the team enters Cameron Indoor Stadium to face the Duke Basketball team on Friday night.
The most dangerous teams in sports are the ones with nothing to lose and that it the situation the Colorado State Rams are in on Friday night when they enter Cameron Indoor Stadium to face the No. 4 Duke Blue Devils.
Duke is coming off of a comeback victory against the No. 3 Kansas Jayhawks to start the season at Madison Square Garden in the State Farm Champions Classic.
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While the win from the Blue Devils is more impactful and will receive more headlines, Colorado State is also coming off an opening night victory in their own right.
The Rams were able to defeat Denver University, 74-63, for its first win after coming off of a 12-20 season.
Colorado State was led by senior guard Kris Martin who logged a team high 35 minutes and a game-high 18 points in addition to five rebounds, two assists, two steals, and a block.
Head Coach Niko Medved saw four players reach double-figures in the opening night victory, including Martin.
Senior center Nico Carvacho notched a doubled-double with ten points and 11 rebounds as the 6-foot-11 big man averaged 16.1 points and 12.9 rebounds last season.
Adam Thistlewood also came close to a double-double but the sophomore fell one rebound short with 15 points and nine rebounds.
Coming off the bench, Hyron Edwards also netted ten points in 22 minutes.
As a team, the Rams struggled to shoot from 3-point range, making only of 7-of-23 shots (30.4%), but made 46.0% from the field (23-of-50) and Colorado State made a living at the free throw line, going 21-of-26 (80.8%).
Colorado State out-rebounded Denver 35-30, while also creating 14 turnovers.
The Duke front-court will have to be able to contain the big and lethal combination of Colorado State big men as the teams battle on Friday night at 7:00pm EST on the ACC Network.