FORT COLLINS >> Tad Boyle called them “the three dudes.”

Colorado State had been a prolific 3-point team through the first month of the college basketball season, yet much of the Rams’ long-range damage has been compiled by the trio of Josh Pascarelli, Brandon Rechsteiner and Kyle Jorgensen.

Those dudes were talked about at CU’s practices throughout the week. They were highlighted on the scouting report. And yet that trio still absolutely torched the Buffaloes.

Behind a torrid showing from 3-point range, Colorado State handed the CU men’s basketball team its first defeat of the season, outpacing the Buffs in the final moments in a 91-86 decision Saturday afternoon at sold-out Moby Arena.

CSU finished 18-for-35 from long range, with the trio of Pascarelli, Rechsteiner and Jorgensen combining to go 14-for-24. Pascarelli was 8-for-10 from the arc and finished with 26 points.

“Nobody listened to me. Nobody listened to our scouting report, I can tell you that,” Boyle said. “Nobody executed the game plan. We knew that (Pascarelli) and (Rechsteiner) and (Jorgensen), who are their dudes behind the arc — they’ve got other guys that can make threes, don’t get me wrong — but those three dudes are their guys that really, really take the most and make the most of their threes.

“At halftime they had 10 made threes, those three guys had eight of the 10. In the game, they make 18 threes and those three guys had 14 of them. You let a team make 18 threes, it’s going to be hard to win no matter who you play, where you play. Credit goes to CSU. They executed their game plan offensively infinitely better than the Buffs executed their game plan defensively.”

CU actually outshot the Rams by a solid margin in the first half (.630 to .531) and didn’t surrender an offensive rebound until after halftime, yet the Buffs trailed 48-41 at the break after the Rams knocked down 10 3-pointers in the frame, with five from Pascarelli.

The Buffs were unable to cool the Rams’ hot shooting touch after the break, but CU was able to start forcing enough turnovers to make a charge.

CSU pushed its lead to 13 points before the Buffs caught fire, getting consecutive 3-pointers from Alon Michaeli, Barrington Hargress and Isaiah Johnson as CU scored 16 straight points in what turned into an 18-1 run.

“We didn’t execute the game plan well enough,” CU’s Sebastian Rancik said. “That’s on us and our discipline. Our run was based on our defense. That was when we got our only kill — we call it a kill when we get three stops in a row — and that was our only kill of the game. As soon as we got that, we cut the lead and then took the lead.”

The Buffs held their biggest lead at 72-68 after a jumper by Hargress, and a 3-pointer from Johnson gave the Buffs a two-point lead with 1 minute, 48 seconds remaining.

That, however, was CU’s final field goal. Jorgensen recaptured the lead for CSU with a three-point play, and a short jumper by Pascarelli gave the Rams a three-point lead with 33 seconds left.

The Buffs finished with a season-high shooting percentage of .621 and recorded a season-low six turnovers, but it wasn’t nearly enough to offset the porous perimeter defense.

“Obviously these guys aren’t listening to their coach,” Boyle said. “They’re not listening to our coaching staff. They’re not listening to the scouting report. Maybe they just don’t believe in us. But maybe they will now.”