Tuesday, March 4, 1997

LAS VEGAS -- Colorado State fell victim to Southern Methodist's red-hot first-half shooting and could not climb all the way back, dropping a 93-89 decision to the Mustangs in the first round of the Western Athletic Conference tournament. The loss drops the Rams to 20-9 on the season as they await word on a possible NIT bid. SMU improves to 16-11 and advances to play fourth-ranked Utah.

Colorado State took an early six-point lead on two 3-pointers by Jameel Mahmud, but the Mustangs took over, hitting four 3-pointers to key a 25-5 run to make it 25-11 with 11:29 left in the first half.

SMU shot .606 from the floor in the first half in opening up a 51-32 halftime lead. Colorado State leading scorer Bryan Christiansen was held scoreless in the first half, but Mahmud poured in 15 in the period. Mahmud hit all five of his 3-pointers in the first half to keep the Mustangs within sight.

Christiansen finally broke free from the SMU defense in the second half, scoring 20 points as Colorado State mounted its chase.

A trifecta from Christiansen with 11:43 to play cut the Mustang lead to 62-56. The Rams kept the deficit to within 10 until a layup by Jemiel Rich and four points by Allen Krist increased the margin to 13 at 77-64.

Christiansen then nailed another 3-pointer and layups by Mahmud and Ryan Chilton made it 77-71. The Rams could get no closer than six until Scott Benson came off the bench to nail a 3-pointer with 57 seconds left to cut it to 87-82.

Rich hit 1-of-2 free throws on the other end and Mahumd answered with another 3-pointer - his eighth of the game - to make it 88-84 with 31 seconds left. Stephen Woods hit 4-of-4 free throws for SMU in the last 22 seconds to offset a Chilton jumper with six seconds remaining. A last-second 3-pointer by Benson brought the Rams to within the final margin.

Mahmud finished with a career-high 30 points for the Rams, including tying the school record for 3-pointers made in a game. Colorado State hit 15 trifectas in the game which also ties a school record.

Woods led the SMU attack with 22 points and Rich added 21. The Mustangs cooled off in the second half, shooting .423 from the floor. The Rams hit .541 in the second period in outscoring SMU 57-42.