GAME NOTES: The Mountain West Conference team with the most overall wins takes the floor at home for the last time on Wednesday, as the Colorado State Rams host the lowly San Jose State Spartans at Moby Arena.

The Rams, who still have road games against Nevada and Utah State next week before the start of the conference tournament in Las Vegas on March 11, have won two straight and four of the last five outings, the lone setback coming against San Diego State at Viejas Arena on Valentine's Day (72-63). Last Saturday, the program whipped up on Air Force at home, 66-53, to move to 10-5 in conference play and remain in the hunt for first in the standings with time ticking away.

Over on the other side, the Spartans are a team that just can't seem to catch a break, due mostly to the fact that they've been riddled with injury and suspensions. Entering the week there are only two teams in Division I (measuring 345 programs) that had fewer wins than SJSU (Central Arkansas and Florida A&M both with just a single victory).

Since defeating little-known St. Katherine College (74-63) on Dec. 9, the Spartans have fallen in every single one of their league bouts, with a 74-56 loss to San Diego State last Saturday dropping the program to 0-14. The overall losing streak measures a staggering 16 in a row.

The Rams dominated SJSU in the first meeting of the season last month by a score of 70-41 at The Event Center, thanks to John Gillon who tallied 14 points and J.J. Avila with 12 and 10 rebounds. Defensively, CSU limited the host to only 20.8 percent shooting from the field and 4-of-23 behind the 3- point line.

As a result of the earlier victory, the all-time series now stands at 9-0 in favor of the Rams.

The Spartans nearly pulled off the unthinkable during their meeting against league-leading San Diego State over the weekend, but because college games last 40 minutes and not just 20, it simply wasn't in the cards. San Jose State should be commended for actually leading by a point at the break, 36-35, but in the second half the squad failed to make a single trip to the free-throw line and was just 8-of-22 from the floor. Nevertheless, Rashad Muhammad and Darryl Gaynor II both had stellar efforts with 27 and 23 points, respectively, combining to shoot 9-of-17 behind the 3-point line.

During conference play Muhammad is leading the offense with 15.2 ppg, but with only 34.1 percent accuracy from the floor there's little hope he can get the team over the hump in these final regular-season outings. As a team, San Jose State has converted only 32.9 percent from the field and 28.6 percent beyond the arc in league action, sending the team to a scoring deficit of 21.2 ppg. Overall, the team's minus-16.0 ppg ranks them 341st nationally.

The Rams again leaned on Daniel Bejarano to get them over the hump against Air Force, the guard scoring a game-high 20 points, hitting on 5-of-6 behind the 3-point line, and pulling down seven rebounds at the same time to help give the hosts a 38-26 edge on the glass. Avila pitched in with another 18 points and seven rebounds as well, followed by Joe De Ciman with 12 points and three blocked shots, the team posting eight rejections in the meeting, compared to just one for the visiting Falcons.

Playing at home this season has provided great success for the Rams, winning all but one of those 15 decisions. Avila is averaging 15.9 ppg and 7.3 rpg in those outings, although he has missed one. He is also first on the unit with 34 steals and second with 50 assists, some of the latter surely going to Stanton Kidd and Bejarano who are averaging 12.7 and 11.9 ppg, respectively, inside the friendly confines of Moby Arena.

While almost anything is possible, the chances of the Spartans finding a way to score an upset against one of the better teams in the Mountain West, on the road no less, is a huge stretch for an SJSU group that has had very little to celebrate in 2014-15.