No. 5 San Diego State 65, Colorado State 56: Xavier Thames had 24 points and seven rebounds as the host Aztecs defeated the Rams for their 18th consecutive victory.

Winston Shepard added 17 points for San Diego State (19-1, 8-0 Mountain West) to give coach Steve Fisher his 300th win at the school. JJ O’Brien grabbed 10 rebounds while making up for the absence of leading rebounding Josh Davis (knee).

Jon Octeus scored 24 points for Colorado State (12-10, 3-6), which has lost 11 straight road games against the Aztecs. The Rams received 13 rebounds from J.J. Avila but were 2-of-14 from 3-point range while losing for the fourth time in five games.

Colorado State trailed by 12 with seven minutes left but made a strong push to pull within 60-54 on Avila’s basket with 1:03 to play. The Aztecs made five free throws – four by Thames – to get the lead back to 11 while wrapping up the win.

San Diego State held Colorado State to four field goals over the first 15-plus minutes while building a 27-9 lead. The Rams finished strong to pull within 32-20 at the break but the Aztecs stretched the lead back to 16 on Thames’ basket with just over 14 minutes to play.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Colorado State G Daniel Bejarano, who averages 16.5 points and nine rebounds, had to be physically restrained from reaching coach Larry Eustachy during an early first-half timeout by teammates and assistant coaches and was benched for the rest of the game. … The rebounding battle was tied at 40 with San Diego State being without Davis, who has reached double digits on the boards in each of his last 13 games. … The Aztecs’ winning streak is two short of the school-record 20 won by the 2010-11 squad.