DENVER – MSU Denver takes tremendous pride in its defense, but for right now the points just keep on flowing.
 
Kendall McIntosh (Oakley, Calif./Freedom) (22 points), Garrett Carter (Rialto, Calif./Etiwanda) (21 points, five assists) and Druce Asah (Tracy, Calif./Tracy) (20 points) all scored at least 20 points and the Roadrunners put up their highest point total in two years on Wednesday with a quality victory of 96-91 over Northwest Nazarene (Idaho).
 
One game after scoring a season-best 86 points, the Roadrunners put up their highest point total since Dec. 30, 2016.
 
"When our offense is going like this, teams are going to have a tough time playing us," McIntosh said.
 
And this win, the fourth in the row for a Roadrunners team coming of age, ranks only slightly behind the November win over Texas A&M-Commerce (according to computer ratings on talismanred.com) as the team's best of the season. Northwest Nazarene is now 6-2, with one of its wins coming over Division I Idaho.
 
"We really needed to play this game against a quality opponent," Metropolitan State coach Michael Bahl said about scheduling the non-conference game in between Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference matchups last Sunday with Western State Colorado and Jan. 4 at home against Fort Lewis.
 
Winning that game just makes it that much better.
 
The Roadrunners (5-4) shot a season-best 54.2 percent (26 of 48) from the field, their third straight game of shooting 50 percent or better, and their best since shooting 63.0 percent in a win last January against Colorado Mesa.
 
"We were really trying at the beginning of the season, but it just wasn't working," Asah said. "But coach just told us to stick with it, and we did."
 
Said Bahl: "Early on this season, I had the reins on. In practice, I was really on them for taking bad shots. In their minds, they weren't sure why I was that way. And you could see in our first few games that we were kind of hesitant, guys weren't really shooting with confidence. 
 
"I was trying to implement that maybe in another program you were allowed to take some of those shots, but in our program, 'This is what a good shot is, and this is what a bad shot is.' It's hard for kids to figure that out. I didn't have a timeline on when they would figure it out, but I knew we had a good offensive team, and I think we're starting to see a little bit of that."
 
It was plain to see late in the first half and early in the second half. The Roadrunners scored the final three points of the opening 20 minutes to take a 45-41 lead, then extended the lead to 16 points – at 59-43 – with a 14-2 run after the break.
 
The final nine points of that burst came on consecutive 3-pointers by Carter, Jacob Inclan (Tucson, Ariz./Sunnyside) and Asah as the Nighthawks worried about the likes of McIntosh and Elijah Straughter (Fresno, Calif./Clovis North) inside, the driving ability of Carter and Enrique Cortes Zotes as well as quality shooters.
 
"It opens up everything for each other," said Inclan, who hit 3 of 4 from 3-point range and is now shooting 52.2 percent (12 of 23) from distance this season. "We're a pretty tough team to guard."
 
The Nighthawks climbed back into it, though, even pulling within three points twice just past the midway mark of the second half. But that was also at a time when Carter became unguardable – he accounted for six straight Roadrunners points by going 3 for 4 at the line and hitting another 3 that put the lead at 75-69.
 
MSU Denver stretched the lead back to 10 points on a McIntosh dunk set up by a clever feed from Cortes Zotes, making it 83-73 with 4:21 left.
 
And down the stretch the Roadrunners' improved free throw shooting included a 10 for 12 performance in the final 1:42 from Marcus Jefferson (Lewisville, Texas/Lewisville), Carter and McIntosh. That was enough to withstand 33 points from Northwest Nazarene's Obi Megwa and 25 from Adonis Arms.
 
The Roadrunners got to the line 46 times and made 34 for a solid 73.9 percent. It was the program's most trips and makes at the free throw line since the 2013-14 Final Four team was 36 for 46 in a January game against Colorado Mesa.
 
"You don't win games with 3s, you extend leads because of 3s," said Bahl, whose team was 10 of 22 (45.5 percent) from 3 for the game, including 60 percent (6 of 10) in the second half. "You win because of layups and free throws. We pound the ball inside so much, the defense starts collapsing, and now those 3s are stand-still, inside-out 3s and those are high percentage shots for college basketball players."