FORT COLLINS — On an afternoon where Colorado State honored a handful of program legends, Jase Butler did his best Jalen Lake impression and Carey Booth did his best Jason Smith.

It’s never a bad sign when you’re emulating two players who are all over the program record book, but the Rams (15-10, 6-8 Mountain West) needed both of those performances and then some to take down rival Wyoming (13-12, 4-10) by a score of 79-68 on Saturday at Moby Arena.

“It means a lot,” Booth said. “You can’t act like it’s just another game because it’s not. Obviously, it means more and it’s great to win in games against Wyoming. It’s good for our overall season and helping us progress forward.”

This was a game Ali Farokhmanesh’s team probably would’ve lost a month ago. They did lose a handful of games that had a similar first 30 minutes of action as this one against the Cowboys. It’s a reason they’re still two games under .500 in conference despite the current three-game winning streak.

With under 13 minutes to play, Wyoming led 57-47 and didn’t appear like it was slowing down offensively with a trio of talented guards getting to the rim and finishing through soft defense with ease and regularity. 

But something finally clicked in the final 12 minutes when the Rams outscored the Pokes 32-11. It wasn’t anything tactical. They just got tougher. 

“We’ve been kinda fighting that the whole year,” Butler said. “We’ve been in a lot of similar positions, and we haven’t been able to just respond to adversity. It’s a credit to our preparation. We’ve been practicing really well, and I think it’s starting to finally show on the court.”

Butler did a little bit of everything in the win — hence the comparison to Lake from his coach — but it was his defense late that turned the tide. CSU was scratching and clawing its way back into the game little by little, but a steal by Butler led directly to a layup for Jevin Muniz that gave the Rams their first lead since early in the second half.

After another solid defensive possession on the other side, Butler scored a driving layup to give CSU a four-point lead with four minutes to go and a rocking Moby Arena took it from there as Wyoming went the final three minutes without a point.

“Jase’s steal, I thought that changed the whole game,” Farokhmanesh said. “Once he stole that pass, that was the difference in the game and brought the confidence level and the juice to the arena and once they called timeout, our guys were ready to roll after that.”

Butler finished with a career-high 18 points and six assists to go with three steals. He was a plus-25 in nearly 30 minutes of what was clearly his best game since joining the Rams after an up-and-down first season of college basketball at Washington.

“Sometimes you have to go through those experiences and feel those moments and I think he’s starting to feel more and more of those moments,” Farokhmanesh said. “We can simulate, we can practice, we can talk about it, but at some point you have to go through it to get that experience. It’s almost like he’s going through his sophomore year right now, whereas the start of the year was kinda his freshman year and he was trying to figure it out. Now, he’s playing like a sophomore that’s borderline playing like a junior.”

That’s how it is right now for nearly the entire CSU team, which has just one senior on the roster. 

Booth tied his career-high with six blocks in front of Smith, the program’s career blocks per game leader, who was sitting courtside for a game in which he was inducted into CSU’s Ring of Honor.

Junior big man Rashaan Mbemba scored 14 important points and grabbed eight rebounds off the bench.

Sophomore Kyle Jorgensen scored nine of his 11 points in the second half as he got better as the game wore on.

After a disappointing month of January, the Rams are starting to look like the team Farokhmanesh envisioned when he put it together last offseason. Just like last year’s team, this current CSU group is starting to play its basketball at the right time with March in sight. 

“It takes time and patience and that’s what this program’s been about, patience to help kids grow,” Farokhmanesh said. 

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GAME RECAP

Colorado State 79, Wyoming 68

What happened: The Rams (15-10, 6-8 Mountain West) stormed back in the second half to pick up an important win over the Cowboys (13-12, 4-10 MW) that extends their winning streak to three games. Five different players were in double figures as CSU used a collective effort to erase a 10-point deficit and outscore their biggest rival by 21 points in the final 12 minutes. 

Star of the night: Sophomore guard Jase Butler, who transferred in from Washington last summer, had his best as a Ram, totaling a career-high 18 points and six assists in nearly 30 minutes of action. 

Quotable: “They were motivated. There was some things that was said that was kinda disrespectful and that’s up to them. But, for us, we’re just gonna play basketball and be about us and talk about us.” — CSU coach Ali Farokhmanesh on the rivalry win 

Up next: The Rams hit the road for a midweek trip to Las Vegas where they will face UNLV on 9 p.m. Wednesday (CBS Sports Network).