3 takeaways: CSU women's basketball blows out BYU in season-opening win

It’s far too early to get overly excited, but Colorado State’s women’s basketball team showed it could be a legitimate contender for the Mountain West title in its season opener Tuesday night, defeating a BYU team that might be the best team it faces at Moby Arena all season.

The Rams, who have nine new players on the roster this season, erased a four-point halftime deficit and rolled in the second half to an 82-62 win.

BYU went 26-4 overall and 15-1 in the West Coast Conference last season, earning a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Cougars lost their first-round game 61-57 to Villanova, a No. 11 seed.

CSU was 21-12 overall and 9-9 in the MW, making a nice run to the title game of the conference tournament as the No. 6 seed and ending the season with a loss at Portland in the first round of the WNIT.

Here are some key takeaways from the game:

Newcomers add offensive firepower

CSU has remade its roster with the addition of five transfers — four from four-year programs and one from a junior college — plus four true freshmen.

The majority seem to play with the attacking mentality of fifth-year senior point guard McKenna Hofschild, driving to the basket until the defense stops them and getting either an easy basket, drawing a foul or drawing a defender that leaves a teammate open.

Cailyn Crocker, a transfer from Cal, clearly plays with that mentality and scored 17 points off the bench in her CSU debut. She made five of seven shots from the floor and six of seven free throws.

But she wasn’t the only one.

Joseana Vaz, a transfer from Casper (Junior) College, and Hannah Ronsiek, a true freshman from South Dakota, also came off the bench and made aggressive drives into the paint to finish with 10 points apiece.

CSU’s bench, in fact, scored almost as many points (40) as its starters (42).

Another transfer, Destiny Thurman from UTEP, was in the starting five and contributed eight points.

“It’s very nice just to know there’s so many weapons on that floor at one time,” said Hofschild, who finished with 18 points and nine assists. “As a point guard, that’s kind of your dream, to be able to get in there and then have your pick and choice of where you’re going with it and having the confidence to know, OK, if I go here, they’re going to knock it down. If I go here, they’re going to finish.

“So, just to have a lot of people out there on that floor getting their stuff done; it’s very encouraging, very awesome.”

Second-half surge carries Rams

CSU trailed 39-35 at halftime but surged ahead with a 22-7 run to open the third quarter and never let up.

The Rams led by 11 points at the end of the third quarter and by as many as 24 early in the fourth.

CSU head coach Ryun Williams said there were some minor adjustments made at halftime, like putting forward Sydney Mech on BYU’s top returning scorer, Lauren Gustin, to limit her touches.

For the most part, though, what the Rams did at halftime was double down on the original game plan and execute it better.

“It was basically, ‘Be tougher. Play smarter,’ ” Williams said. “We lost some assignments in the first half, which allowed some of their better shooters to snipe some 3’s. Shouldn’t have happened. Second half you didn’t see that.”

Instead, every drive was challenged, every pass contested and 3-pointers challenged.

BYU hit seven of 18 3-pointers in the first half and just one of nine in the second.

The increased defensive pressure led to more stops that allowed CSU to get into transition on offense for easy baskets before the Cougars could set up their defense.

CSU shot 69% from the floor in the third quarter, hitting 11 of 16 shots, and 56% in the second half after shooting 45% in the first two quarters.

“In the locker room at half, we just talked about how we’re at our best when we can get out and run, get in transition,” Hofschild said. “And in order to do that, we’ve got to get stops and rebounds.

So, I think there was just a mentality change for our offense to translate. ‘We need to get it done on the defensive end.’

“So, we locked down, really took it personal a bit more, got those boards a little bit better and then we were able to get out run, and that’s I think when the game opened up.”

Roster guide:What we know about Colorado State women's basketball heading into the Rams' 2022-23 season

Big win to open the season

CSU has some other big-name opponents on its nonconference schedule and will have a tough test at home against Montana at 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11. The other big nonconference games, though, are at neutral sites in tournaments (Auburn in Las Vegas on Saturday, Nov. 26) or on the road (at Mississippi State on Sunday, Nov. 20).

As excited as Williams and his players were by this win in their season opener, they know they can’t get ahead of themselves.

“Every team, they have stuff that gives you fits; it’s all about matchups,” Williams said. “So, every night is so different. Montana’s got a really good team on Friday night. … There’s a lot of good teams in the Mountain West, there’s a lot of good teams we play in the nonconference. We can’t really pat ourselves on the back too much.”

As opening nights go, though, this one was better than most.

“That was a fun game for our team,” Williams said. “I’m just proud of the execution that they played with, especially in that second half. They went for it in that second half. It’s fun to see them have fun.”

Kelly Lyell reports on CSU, high school and other local sports and topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, follow him on Twitter @KellyLyell and find him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: 3 takeaways from Colorado State women's basketball's win over BYU