Evans leads Colorado St. to 78-70 win over Memphis

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - MARCH 21: Kyan Evans #0 of the Colorado State Rams dribbles the ball against PJ Haggerty #4 of the Memphis Tigers during the second half in the first round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Climate Pledge Arena on March (Steph Chambers / Getty Images)

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SEATTLE - An impressive second-half effort led by Kyan Evans carried the 12th-seeded Colorado State Rams to a 78-70 upset victory over the fifth-seeded Memphis Tigers in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Evans scored 23 points and was 6-of-9 from 3-point distance as the Rams turned a five-point halftime deficit into a first-round victory at Climate Pledge Arena.

"Usually just when that first shot goes in, especially when it's this kind of like just all net first shot, then it just starts feeling good from there," Evans said.

Evans hit six of his first seven shots from distance as a second-half surge carried the Rams to the win. Nique Clifford and Jalen Lake each scored 14 points to compliment Evans' effort as the Rams earned their first Round of 64 victory in the NCAA Tournament since 2013.

"I really challenged ourselves at halftime this group," Colorado State head coach Niko Medved said. "I thought they were a lot tougher than we were that last seven minutes of the first half and like this group always does, they, you challenge 'em, they look at each other and we all respond as a group and boy did we respond in the second half."

Neither team was able to stretch the lead throughout a back-and-forth first half. A six-point lead in the opening minutes for the Rams was the largest advantage by either team until after halftime.

Memphis briefly pushed the lead to seven points off a Baraka Okojie steal to open the second half. Nicholas Jourdain's follow-up lay-in made it a 38-31 Tigers lead.

However, Colorado State answered with a run of their own as they held the Tigers to over six minutes without a basket from the field. A 3-pointer from Evans with 9:47 left pushed the Colorado State lead to seven for the first time in the contest. Over a four-minute stretch midway through the half, the Rams outscored Memphis by a 19-6 margin, and they grabbed a 10-point lead, 64-54, with 8:38 left.

Memphis struggled to find clean looks in their half-court offense as the Rams pressured the Tigers into 16 turnovers and just 34.5 percent shooting from the field after halftime.

"We had to finish possessions better," Medved said. "I thought we started with doing that better in the second half. Dain Dainja is a load. I mean, he is really hard. I thought we did a little bit better job in the second half of kind of taking his real estate, not allowing him to catch it where he wanted, bringing a little bit of help earlier to him when he put it on the floor.

Dain Dainja had 22 points and 12 rebounds to lead the way for Memphis, and Colby Rogers and P.J. Haggerty each added 18 points. However, the absence of Tyrese Hunter – the Tigers' third-leading scorer – to injury helped to limit Memphis' offensive potential.

"We got the ball inside, kind of pounded it inside. At the end, we could have done better, shot the ball better, could have knocked down some shots to help the inside," Tigers head coach Penny Hardaway said. "When they packed the paint on Dain in the second half we just didn't make enough shots to kind of help open it back up."

After Memphis trimmed the lead to six with 4:47 remaining, a 3-pointer from the left corner with 3:02 left to play from Lake stretched the lead back to double-digits and served as the finishing blow for the Tigers.

Colorado State will have the chance to reach the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 1969 against the winner of 4-seed Maryland and 13-seed Grand Canyon. The Rams reached the Elite Eight in 1969 and have had two second-round exits since 1989.

"It's a great feeling," Lake said. "We just want to keep things rolling with our defense and keep clicking on offense and just keep our confidence up."

The Source: Original story by FOX 13 Seattle.