FORT COLLINS >> Colorado State men’s basketball improved to 3-0 on the young season Tuesday night, but for the second game in a row, it was a struggle at times.

CSU had to make a late second-half rally to come away with a 74-65 victory and remain undefeated after three straight games at Moby Arena to start the season.

“We found a way to win tonight,” CSU head coach Niko Medved said. “I don’t think we played particularly well. We had some stretches where we did. For whatever reason, I just think we didn’t have a lot of juice tonight.”

Coming out of halftime trailing by two, the Rams turned to Nique Clifford, who scored only two points in the first half. He made a pair of shots in the first four minutes of the second, including a 3-pointer that tied the game at 42-42 after the Pioneers had opened the second half on an 8-3 run.

Clifford finished the game with 12 points, 10 of which came in the second half.

The Rams couldn’t pull away from the Pioneers. A mixture of missed shots and turnovers kept the game close in the second half until CSU was able to put together a 13-0 run to turn a 53-52 deficit into a 65-53 lead with 5:45 remaining.

Denver ended the Rams’ run with a 6-0 spurt of its own to cut the CSU lead to 65-59 with 5:09 left, but that was as close as the Pioneers could get. Jalen Lake’s 18th and 19th points of the game stopped the DU run, and the Rams closed the game by outscoring the Pioneers 10-6.

In addition to Lake’s game-high 19 and Clifford’s 12, Jaylen Crocker-Johnson added 14.

Lake said better rebounding was the key to the late second-half surge that eventually carried the Rams to the victory.

“I think we just kept rebounding,” Lake said. “I think we finally locked in on the glass. I think we did a better job getting defensive rebounds. I think that whole first half and a little bit at the start of the second half, they really did a good job of getting on the offensive glass and pushing us that way.”

CSU fell behind in the game’s first few minutes but quickly recovered, taking a lead they wouldn’t relinquish until early in the second half on a layup by Lake that made it 10-8.

It was part of a big first half for Lake, who scored 12 points in a 7 1/2-minute spurt at one point. He had a pair of 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes as well.

Denver closed the first half on an 8-0 run and looked to have tied the game at the first-half buzzer, but after review it was determined that time had expired, keeping the Rams ahead 36-34.