Box Score DENVER - Late free throws help propel No. 3 Metro State past Midwestern State (Texas) 66-60 as the Mustangs quest for their fourth straight Elite Eight trip fell short on Sunday night. The Roadrunners improved to 29-2 and the win allowed them to advance to the NCAA South Central Regional final on Tuesday against St. Mary's (Texas).  The loss dropped the Mustangs' record to 22-9 on the season as their season ended with the loss.

Midwestern State had won the South Central Region championship each of the past three seasons with their last regional loss in 2009. Metro State won the Central Region last season.

MSU Denver was led by Demetrius Miller (Flint, Mich./Flint Central H.S.) with 18 points.  Also scoring in double figures was Jonathan Morse (Boulder, Colo./Fairview H.S.) and Mitch McCarron (Brisbane, Australia/Genesis Christian College) with 16 and 13 points respectively. 

In the first half, Morse became the sixth player in Metro State history to score at least 1,500 points for his career moving into fifth place all time by the end of the game at 1,509 points.  Then, in the second half, Morse became the first player in Metro State history to pull down 1,000 rebounds for his career.

In the first half, Metro State started out rough as on the very first possession Brandon Jefferson (Flower Mound, Texas/Lewisville H.S.) turned the ball over and fouled Keith Spellman for Midwestern State.  The Mustangs used the momentum to pull ahead early in the first half by shooting 9-for-10 including going 4-for-4 from behind the arc.

Midwestern State was able to use its hot shooting to pull ahead for its largest lead at 13 when the Mustangs led 20-7 with 12:29 left in the first half.  Metro State's offense was finally able to wake up after Miller tipped in his missed jumper at the 12:06 mark.

Over the rest of the half, Metro State outscored Midwestern State 26-8 to take the lead at 33-28 going into halftime.  Overall for the first half, Metro State shot 42.3 percent on 11-of-26 shooting while only being able to connect on 1-of-9 from behind the arc.  Midwestern State shot 50 percent on 11-of-22 from the field including going 5-for-9 from 3 point range.

In the second half, Metro State again came out slowly as Midwestern State went on a 12-7 run to tie the game 40-40 at the 14:38 mark.  From there, the Roadrunners were able to pull ahead on Tyler Cooper (Huntington Beach, Calif./Christian Heritage H.S.)'s 3-point field goal and never relinquished the lead in route to the victory despite the Mustangs best efforts.

During the second half, Metro State was able to hold Midwestern State without a field goal for 8:48.  The drought began at the 10:53 mark when Eddie D'Haiti made a jumper to close the gap to 49-47 in favor of the Roadrunners.  Conner Geiser ended the scoring drought for the Mustangs at the 2:05 mark when he made his shot to cut the lead to 61-53 in favor of the Roadrunners.  Over that time period, Metro State went on a 12-4 run to put the game out of reach.

Overall for the game, Metro State shot 42.5 percent on 17-of-40 shooting despite only shooting 4-for-15 from behind the arc.  Over the last 4:10 of the game, Metro State was unable to make a field goal but used clutch free throw shooting during that time to maintain the lead in route to the victory. The Roadrunners made 18-of-24 in the second half at the line after hitting just 10-of-16 in the first half.

Midwestern State was led by Kevin Grayer with 16 points.

Metro State will be back in action on Tuesday when it hosts the South Central Regional Championship against St. Mary's (Texas) at 7 p.m.