3 takeaways: Colorado State basketball team blows out South Carolina

Statement made.

A win in the fourth game of the season against a team picked near the bottom of the SEC won't make a season, but the Colorado State men's basketball team certainly put college basketball on notice that the Rams have pieces to be a very dangerous team.

CSU opened the Charleston Classic on Thursday with an eye-opening 85-53 win over South Carolina.

Here are three thoughts on the win as the Rams move to 4-0.

Size can be overrated

South Carolina (2-1) is excellent in offensive rebounding and much bigger across the board than CSU (4-0).

That means a big interior advantage for South Carolina, right? Uh, nope.

CSU’s on- and off-ball movement led to the Rams carving South Carolina up and scoring at will inside. CSU is typically a good deep-ball shooting team, but the Rams had just one 3-pointer at the half and CSU was up 21.

How? Paint touches, and really, really good ones at that.

CSU scored at will inside as it attacked the rim and paid no concern to South Carolina’s size.

Points in the paint were a shocking 54-14 in CSU's favor, and the Rams shot 58% for the game. CSU had 18 assists on 35 field goals.

James Moors had his best game as a Ram, consistently aggressive inside and scoring a career-high 24 points. He even banged in two 3-pointers in the second half. Moors also added nine rebounds.

"How about James Moors tonight?" CSU coach Niko Medved said on the postgame show on 99.1 FM. "Against a huge front line from the SEC, he came in and just battled his tail off. Not a lot to complain about tonight."

John Tonje scored 14 points, and Patrick Cartier and Isaiah Rivera had 12 each.

Defensive lockdown

Medved said holding Weber State to 15 first-half points last game might have been the best defensive performance he had seen in his time leading the Rams.

Thursday might have been as or more impressive, considering the opponent. South Carolina had just 19 first-half points and shot 25% in the first 20 minutes.

CSU held South Carolina scoreless for more than 5 minutes to end the half. South Carolina shot just 31% for the game.

"I thought it started on the defensive end. The guys have been buying into that. I thought we challenged everything," Medved said. "I thought we made it hard for them. I thought we brought a level of physicality early in the game, and I thought we brought the game to them."

It’s a winning recipe to lock teams down like that.

South Carolina made a brief run early in the second half to cut the lead to 14, but CSU had a 17-2 run not long after to bury the game.

Benefits of Game 1 win

The biggest part of the win is, obviously, another victory. There are a few side benefits to winning the first game of an eight-team tournament.

First, CSU is now into the semis and the stronger side of the bracket. This means more challenging matchups and ones that will be better for NCAA Tournament metrics. CSU faces high-scoring College of Charleston in Friday's semis after the hosts beat Davidson 89-66 on Thursday.

The other semi includes two top-35 KenPom teams in Penn State and Virginia Tech. This is a resume-building chance over the next few days.

Second, CSU’s win puts the Rams in a spotlight position because their semifinal will be shown on ESPN2 rather than a consolation game lower down the ESPN family food chain. National exposure is never bad for a program.

The semifinal will be played at 3 p.m. Mountain on Friday. See Coloradoan.com after the game or Sunday's edition for game results.

Another positive is no Ram played more than 28 minutes, which can be good for the legs during a stretch of three games in four days.

Follow sports reporter Kevin Lytle on Twitter and Instagram @Kevin_Lytle.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Charleston Classic: Colorado State blows out South Carolina basketball