GAME NOTES: Still flaunting an unblemished record after 10 games, the Colorado State Rams now set their sights on the Denver Pioneers in a non-conference battle at Magness Arena on Friday.

The Rams have been watching from the sidelines for almost a week now, last taking the floor last Saturday when they dismissed Arkansas-Fort Smith by a final of 86-60 at home. A win in this contest would make Colorado State 11-0, extending the program record for consecutive victories to open a campaign and matching the longest overall win streak for the squad since the 1988-89 campaign.

While the Rams have remained perfect through 10 games, the Pioneers find themselves sitting at .500 following the same number of outings. Inconsistency has been the theme for Denver thus far, unable to put together back-to-back victories to this point. The team did lose consecutive outings for the first time this season last week, but put an end to that slide with an 83-73 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Wednesday night.

As far as the all-time series between these in-state rivals is concerned, the Rams are ahead by a count of 92-68 in what is the second-longest series on the books for CSU, trailing only the matchups with Wyoming which now number 221 games.

Denver won the most recent meeting a season ago in Fort Collins by a score of 80-70, the first victory for the Pioneers at CSU since 1979. Denver is aiming to post back-to-back wins in the series for the first time since 1967-68.

Against Arkansas-Fort Smith, the Rams held the visitors to just six field goals in the first half, carving out a 40-18 advantage at the break and from there they cruised to the comfortable win. Gian Clavell led the CSU offense with a game-high 17 points, Joe De Ciman pitched in with 15, Carlton Hurst 13 points off the bench, and J.J. Avila 10 points to go along with a game-high nine rebounds.

The Rams have stuck with the same starting five through all 10 games thus far, so it only makes sense that Avila finds himself atop the scoring list with 14.8 ppg and also first in rebounding with 7.8 rpg. Playing more than 31 minutes per contest, it is not surprising that Avila is also second on the unit with 30 assists, trailing only Daniel Bejarano (10.5 ppg, 6.3 rpg) who has handed out 35 assists in an effort to make up for his lackluster 36.1 percent shooting from the field.

Denver connected on an impressive 65.0 percent from the field in the last outing against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, and while the team was destined to fall short of that lofty level in the second half, it still knocked down 60.9 percent, en route to the 10-point win. Nate Engesser dropped in 24 points on 5-of-7 shooting beyond the arc, followed by Cam Griffin with 21 points and Brett Olson and Duke Douglas with 14 and 10 points, respectively.

On a team scoring just 61.9 ppg, while giving up 61.1 ppg, Griffin leads the Denver offense with 13.6 ppg as he converts 54.1 percent from the field. Engesser (12.1 ppg) has an even more impressive shooting percentage (.617) from the floor and behind the 3-point line (.538), not to mention having knocked down all but one of his 15 tries at the free-throw line.

The fact that the Rams were able to rest some key players the last time out means they won't be as weary when they hit the floor at Magness Arena tonight, and that will go a long way in sending the Rams to yet another victory.