DENVER – Emily Hartegan (Wylie, Texas/Wylie East) says that maybe she can't do some of the things she used to do on a basketball court.
 
But her first weekend of the 2018-19 season indicates the opposite.
 
"She just can't do it every day," MSU Denver coach Tanya Haave said. "We have to give her a day off every once in a while, and when she's sore maybe she can't jump as high or cut or run as well. But she's pretty close."
 
Hartegan, a 6-foot senior from Texas who patterned her game after role model Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks, is the reigning Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference offensive player of the week after averaging a league-high 19.0 points on a league-best 68.0-percent field-goal shooting (minimum eight attempts) last weekend.
 
She compiled those numbers as she and her Roadrunners teammates faced two top regional opponents in national No. 10 Lubbock Christian and unranked Texas A&M-Commerce. It doesn't get any easier this week as seventh-ranked West Texas A&M comes to the Auraria Event Center for a 7 p.m. game Saturday.
 
Hartegan missed most of the 2016-17 season after having knee surgery. She came back and started all 32 games last season for an NCAA Division II tournament team, and though she averaged 8.9 points and 5.1 rebounds, it was a step back from her six-game totals of the previous year, when she averaged 13.2 points and 7.5 rebounds. She had averaged 11.0 points as a sophomore and 8.4 as a freshman and has 918 career points.
 
"Maybe I can't do the same things I used to do, but fundamentals, doing the little things, not making it complicated – I really like to do that," Hartegan said. "Just simplifying some of my moves."
 
Now, Hartegan said, she's closer to 100 percent healthy while also being relied upon to score more on a team that lost its top two scorers.
 
"I've added some leadership, and I'm communicating more," she said. "Getting back to how I used to be? Well, I feel like I'm getting back in a groove, and it feels good."
 
Said Haave: "With us losing the scoring we did from Georgia (Ohrdorf) and (J'Nae) Squires (-Horton), she's going to have to pick up some of that slack," Haave said. "That's what she does. She's a scorer.
 
"She likes the combo moves and all that, and she has a crossover that's just amazing. People know it's coming and she can still get open with it."
 
Haave also said Hartegan has done well with her new role as vocal leader.
 
"She's one who leads with her effort and her actions, but this team has really taken to her as a role model," Haave said. "She's done a good job of communicating."
 
Said Hartegan: "It's hard. I'm not used to that. I'm not really a leader by vocalizing, more by actions. So I'm getting out of my comfort zone a little bit. But if that's what the team needs, that's what I'm going to do."
 
After dropping two games against tough opponents last weekend, the Roadrunners have a difficult challenge in West Texas A&M, which beat the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs 84-51 and Regis 80-53 last weekend.
 
"I think the second game (last weekend) we turned the page a little bit, started getting it back together," Hartegan said. "I think we're growing, but we still have a long way to go. It takes time to play together and get that experience."
 
Last year, the Lady Buffaloes used a game-ending 18-8 run to beat MSU Denver 70-60 to end the Roadrunners' season in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
 
"Another great test for us," Haave said. "That's where we want to be. We've got them on our home floor. It's the team that knocked us out. I like challenging our team, and I've definitely accomplished that with this team."