The news would just add insult to injury for Hawaii, which had to spend the night in Denver due to a flight delay in Los Angeles. CSU's loss combined with a win tomorrow at New Mexico means Hawaii will finish - technically - tied with the Rams for second place in the WAC's Pacific Division.
It doesn't matter, though, since CSU wins the tie-breaker by virtue of its two wins over Hawaii, as well as the first-round bye into next week's WAC tournament in Las Vegas.
But had the Wahine split with the Rams, tomorrow's WAC season-ender at The Pit against the Lobos would have mattered.
A lot.
It still does. Hawaii (18-7, 11-4) desperately needs a win to snap a three-game losing streak and gain some momentum for Monday's 10:30 a.m. HST tournament game against either Brigham Young or Texas Christian at the Thomas & Mack Center.
"Right now, we have to get the Colorado State loss out of our heads and move on," said Hawaii senior center Kendis Leeburg, who scored 17 points in last Saturday's 52-51 loss to New Mexico.
"I don't know what it is, but we keep dwelling on that loss," Hawaii's other senior, guard Tiffany Fujimoto, said of the 71-64 loss to CSU Feb. 15 that began the team's skid. "We keep talking about it, about putting it behind us. We need to quit talking and do something about it."
It won't be an easy task. New Mexico expects at least 10,000 for its final home game in the 18,000-seat University Arena dubbed "The Pit."
The Lobos (17-8, 8-7) are 10-1 at home this season, 6-1 in WAC play. The only loss was in overtime to Mountain Division leader Utah, the team that topped Colorado State last night, 68-59, at Fort Collins.
"We gained a lot of confidence from that win at Hawaii that we hope will carry over to our game with them this week," said Lobos assistant coach Hazel Tull-Leach. "We weren't doing very well on the road (0-7 before winning two straight at Tulsa and Hawaii). Now we've proved we can play well outside The Pit. The team knows we can win on the road, something that gives us a boost for the (WAC) tournament. Against Hawaii we put everything together, did everything great, especially defensively in the first half. Our team finally played hard enough on the road to win a game."
The Wahine are 6-2 on the road this season but the losses have been in critical games at Colorado State and, last week, at Pacific champion San Diego State.
"We just need to do some things better on both ends of the floor," said Hawaii coach Vince Goo. "We're a little more familiar with their team now and we've had some time off to rest our legs and minds, and think about what we need to do. We hope to enjoy their big crowd and play well."
During the weekly teleconference call, WAC moderator Vicki Boillot joked with Goo about the difference in temperature between Honolulu and Englewood, Colo., home of the WAC office.
Last night, the Wahine got to experience 20 degrees and snow when their plane was delayed out of Los Angeles by three hours due to equipment failure. The team spent the night in Denver after missing its connection to Albuquerque and was expected to arrive in New Mexico this morning.