FINAL: San Diego State 75, Colorado State 60

SAN DIEGO — With the middle of the Mountain West Conference slate fast approaching, the San Diego State Aztecs have an important week of home contests, beginning against the Colorado State Rams on Tuesday night at 8 p.m.

SDSU (10-4, 3-2 Mountain West Conference) finds itself looking up at four teams in the conference standings, trailing co-leaders Utah State and their most recent opponent New Mexico, by 2.5 games apiece. The Aztecs will look to bounce back after taking a 62-48 loss to the Lobos on Saturday, Jan. 11 when the team had two prolonged scoreless spells that stretched for a combined more then 12 minutes.

Scoring consistency has been an early conference season story for the Scarlet and Black, who at 68.2 points per game rank ninth in the circuit. Season-long shooting woes — SDSU ranks second-bottom amongst Mountain West schools with a 43.6% field goal mark in all games — that the squad was able to overcome in part thanks to strong 3-point shooting in non-conference play have become more magnified with the Aztecs shooting an MW-low 29.2% from the land of plenty in conference.

In the seven Aztec wins over the past nine games the team has shot 44.5% from the field and 37.5% from downtown, so when the shots from long fall it's generally a harbinger of success — especially considering their usual lock down defensive efforts which rank top ten in four KenPom defensive metrics.

Colorado State (10-6, 4-1) has rolled in their last three games, winning by 22 points at San José State, 27 against Fresno State and 22 against UNLV. It's worth noting that the four teams (the Rams opened conference play with a 66-64 win at Nevada) CSU has win against in conference are a combined 5-17 against MW foes and 30-37 overall, with only UNLV (9-7, 3-2) above water in conference and the Wolf Pack (9-7, 1-4) also above even for the whole season.

The match up features back courts that are inverses of each other, with the Rams starting fifth-year senior Nique Clifford, senior Jalen Lake and sophomore Kyan Evans as opposed to the usual SDSU trio of Nick Davis with Miles Byrd and BJ Davis. Clifford ranks top ten in six per-game statistics, with his 9.9 rebounds second, his 16.9 points fourth, his 51.5% field goal shooting fifth and 3.7 assists ninth. Lake averages 12.8 points per game and is fifth in the Mountain West averaging 2.13 3-point makes per game.

CSU is adept at moving the ball on offense, with the conference's second-most assists (17.4) and third-best assist-to-turnover ratio (1.39), and hurt opponents from downtown with the MW's second-most 8.1 triples per game. Only the Aztecs play better field goal percentage defense than the Rams, who allow 41.5% shooting by opponents, yet opponents have hit at a 34.8% mark from 3-point land which ranks ninth.

Catch up on coverage leading into Tuesday:

• Early scoreless spell keeps San Diego State chasing in loss at New Mexico
• Aztecs try to gain ground in conference race as schedule softens (San Diego Union Tribune)
• Aztecs Basketball Preview: SDSU hosts Colorado State (East Village Times)
• Growing a point guard: How Kyan Evans is making surges of growth for CSU basketball (Fort Collins Coloradoan)