East Orange, Calif.- The Metropolitan State University of Denver men's basketball team (1-1) fell to No. 23 University of Arkansas-Fort Smith 84-66 at the D2 CCA Tip-Off Classic on Saturday, November 5.
 
The Roadrunners battled with UAFS to begin the game; with the two teams trading leads the first ten minutes, with UAFS holding a 21-20 lead with 8:44 to play. The nationally ranked Lions were able to finish out the first half in a dominant fashion after going on a 21-9 run and into the locker room with a 42-29 lead.
 
The Lions went 15-27 (57%) from the field to MSU Denver 11-32 (34.4%) and missed free throws were an issue for the Roadrunners as well, going 3-9 from the line.
 
In the second half, the Roadrunners comeback attempt was headed by junior guards Sunday Dech (Perth, Australia/Churchlands H.S.) and Cameron Williams (Omaha, Neb./South High School ). Dech finished with a career best 27 points and seven rebounds while Williams added in 14 points of his own. MSU Denver was able to battle back to cut the UAFS lead to eight with just over 11 minutes to play, but the Lions proved to be too much down the stretch.
 
Senior Andre Harris (DeKalb, Ill./DeKalb H.S.) added in eight points and five rebounds in the loss and fellow senior Brian Howard (Maywood, Ill./Saint Ignatius H.S.) also tallied eight points.
 
The Roadrunners will look to close out their California trip with a win against Azusa Pacific on Sunday, November 6 at 2:30 p.m. M.T. before returning home for an exhibition against Colorado College on Saturday, November 12.