Colorado Springs, Colo.- The Metropolitan State University of Denver women's basketball team defeated UCCS 56-54 on Tuesday. The Roadrunners improved to 11-8 overall and 8-6 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. The Mountain Lions fell to 13-7 overall and 10-4 in conference.
The Roadrunners were led by sophomore
Jaelynn Smith (Denver, Colo./East H.S.) with 16 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. Sophomore
Jonalyn Wittwer (Fall Creek, Wis./Fall Creek H.S.) added 12 points and Junior
Georgia Ohrdorf (Wollongong, Australia/St. Mary Star of the Sea College) scored ten for the Roadrunners.
Both teams exchanged threes to get the game going and the quarter remained close throughout with the Roadrunners taking the largest lead of the quarter, up by four. Going into the second quarter the Roadrunners had the edge over the Mountain Lions 13-11.
The score remained 13-11 for nearly four minutes into the second quarter when UCCS tied the game up at 13. After several made shots from downtown, the Roadrunners took a 23-15 lead with four minutes left in the half. However, the Mountain Lions fought back to go on an 8-2 run before half, sending the game into half with a 25-23 scored in favor of the Roadrunners.
UCCS carried the momentum into the second half taking the lead just over a minute into the third quarter and kept the lead the remainder of the quarter, leading by as many as 7. Going into the fourth quarter the Mountain Lions led the Roadrunners 40-35.
MSU Denver went on a 6-0 run with Ohrdorf scoring four to begin the quarter to take the lead 41-40.
The remaining minutes persisted to stay close with each team leading by no more than two points.
UCCS took a three-point lead with 1:33 to go in the game. Senior
Luisa Tago (Medford, Ore./South Medford H.S.) tied the game up at 52 with 58 seconds remaining in the game.
The score remained tied at 54 with 26 seconds left for the Roadrunners to take the last possession. Smith was able to take the ball to the hole and score a buzzer beater lay up with one second to go to give her team the road victory.