DENVER – MSU Denver was killing it.
 
A "kill" is the Roadrunners' term for getting three consecutive defensive stops.
 
And, in Saturday's 73-68 win over Colorado Mesa, MSU Denver actually got seven stops in a row to start the second half while turning a 35-30 deficit into a 42-35 lead with a 12-0 run.
 
"We thought if we could rebound and get kills that we'd be fine," forward Kendall McIntosh (Oakley, Calif./Freedom) said of Metropolitan State University of Denver's halftime mindset. "Because offensively, I thought we were getting the right shots."
 
MSU Denver had seen the high-scoring Mavericks shoot 57.1 percent from the field in the first half, but the Roadrunners had the hot hand after the break, connecting on 55.6 percent from the field while limiting Colorado Mesa to 32.3-percent accuracy.
 
"Coach (Michael Bahl) preached defense at halftime," guard Garrett Carter (Rialto, Calif./Etiwanda) said. "We needed stops and we needed kills. We were able to win because of our defense."
 
After the early lockdown, the Roadrunners got three more second-half kills while building the lead to as many as 13 points, with Elijah Straughter's (Fresno, Calif./Clovis North) basket with 6:16 to go putting it there for the second time at 65-52.
 
Then MSU Denver (3-4 overall, 2-2 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) had to hold on.
 
The Mavericks (7-3, 2-2) crept within 65-61 with just under two minutes left, but Straughter answered with a spinning drive to bump the lead back to six. Mesa knocked down a 3 to cut the lead in half, then the Mavericks' Connor Nichols scored after an MSU Denver turnover to cut the lead to 67-66 with 26.5 seconds left.
 
But freshman Marcus Jefferson (Lewisville, Texas/Lewisville) came through in the clutch, twice making both ends of one-and-one free throw chances as Colorado Mesa shot layups on offense and quickly fouled on defense as the end-game scenario played out.
 
"Our best free-throw shooter in crunch time is Marcus Jefferson (Lewisville, Texas/Lewisville)," Bahl said. "We were able to get him the ball when we wanted to get him the ball, and that's a freshman closing the game out."
 
Jefferson's second set of free throws made it 71-68 with 14.1 seconds left, and the Mavericks misfired on two contested 3-pointers before McIntosh collected a rebound and was fouled, then made two free throws with less than one second left to provide the final points.
 
Carter, a junior transfer who was a doubles-figures scorer last year at Cal State Los Angeles, scored his MSU Denver high with 20 points, making 8 of 12 from the field and 4 of 7 from 3-point range. He also added six rebounds and five assists.

"Coach Bahl was in our ear at halftime, letting us know that we needed to come out with intensity," Carter said. "We needed to have intensity on the offensive and defensive end. And that helped us get the win."
 
The 6-foot-8 McIntosh, another transfer, matched his MSU Denver high with 14 points and had his best rebounding game as a Roadrunner, with nine.
 
"I think our guys are starting to understand where the ball needs to go, where shots are going to come from," Bahl said. "We have a very unselfish team.
 
"What Garrett and Kendall did tonight, that's what we normally see from them in practice."
 
Senior Enrique Cortes Zotes had 11 points while making 4 of 5 shots, including 2 of 3 from 3.
 
Straughter, a freshman, had a career-high eight points while matching his career best of eight rebounds, while Jefferson tied his career-best with five assists.
 
Bahl was particularly pleased with his team's one-on-one defense as it limited the Mavericks – who had averaged 88.9 points and 18.1 assists – to a season-low point total and just 10 assists.
 
"They're a great passing team," Bahl said. "If we don't have to help (one-on-one defenders), it doesn't give them easy passes out. And I thought we did a phenomenal job of that."
 
It's a second straight victory, and three wins in five games, for a Roadrunners team that has posted home victories against arguably the two best teams that have ventured into the Auraria Event Center this season.
 
"I think it shows that we can be a problem," McIntosh said.
 
The Roadrunners, who maintained the best winning percentage in the history of NCAA Division II men's basketball, are back in action Saturday night at 6 p.m. against Western State Colorado (3-7, 0-4).
 
"Western State is always tough," Bahl said. "And we need to validate this win tonight.
 
"It only gets harder. We've got a couple of guys under the weather, a couple guys banged up. But I told the team in the locker room, there isn't a team in the country that doesn't have that right now. You have to push through."
 
Said Carter: "We just need to keep playing our style of basketball. And first and foremost, that's playing defense."