DENVER – MSU Denver kept on rolling Friday night.
 
The Roadrunners took an 11-point first-half lead, led by as many as 18 in the second half, and withstood a late rally to defeat Fort Lewis 77-67 for their fifth straight victory.
 
Metropolitan State University of Denver (6-4 overall, 4-2 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) is on its longest winning streak since posting six wins in a row early in the 2016-17 season. The Roadrunners will try to match that Saturday night in a 7 p.m. game with Adams State (3-8, 3-3) at the Auraria Event Center.
 
"It feels good, but we can't get up too much, because we've got to focus on tomorrow," guard Druce Asah (Tracy, Calif./Tracy) said after Friday's game.
 
Fort Lewis (6-6, 1-5) chipped away at MSU Denver's first-half lead and crept within 45-43 by scoring the first basket of the second half, but the Roadrunners responded with what has become a frequent event this season – a strong burst early in the second half.
 
MSU Denver scored 14 straight points, and 18 of the next 20, to take full control with a 63-45 lead with 12:47 left.
 
"We purposely have lulls in practice where we'll stop for four or five minutes, maybe have a three- or four-minute water break, something that revs our engines down," Bahl said. "Then typically we'll go back to some type of 5-of-5 and we're getting right back into it. We don't necessarily tell them we're simulating halftime, but that's what we're doing."
 
Asah and Garrett Carter (Rialto, Calif./Etiwanda) each scored 18 points to lead four Roadrunners in double figures, the second consecutive game that MSU Denver has had a quartet score 10 or more.
 
Asah made 4 of 7 from 3-point range, making at least four from long distance for his fourth straight game.
 
Carter added five rebounds, four assists and two steals. Kendall McIntosh (Oakley, Calif./Freedom) added 13 points and eight rebounds. And Jaryn Taylor (Yucaipa, Calif./Yucaipa) had season highs of 12 points and seven rebounds off the bench. The 6-foot-7 senior made 5 of 6 from the field.
 
"Jaryn stepped up big for us, and that got us going," Asah said. "For him to play the way he did, it makes us all happy. It really got us going. He deserves it, because he's working hard for it."
 
Taylor, the team's leading returning scorer after averaging 10.6 points and starting 27 of 29 games last season, has welcomed a role in which he is similar to an NBA player who provides scoring punch for the team's second unit.
 
"He's accepted that," Bahl said. "He's (essentially) a starter. He and Elijah Straughter (Fresno, Calif./Clovis North) play about the same amount of minutes. It doesn't matter who starts the game. Those two complement each other so well. But Jaryn is a starter. He just happens to come off the bench.
 
"Any time you can have someone come off the bench and get you double-figure points and close to double-figure rebounds in 19 to 24 minutes … there's not too many people who have those guys off the bench. We're lucky to have Jaryn. Elijah is a little better defender who gives you rebounding. Jaryn is good defender and rebounder, and he can score."
 
Taylor is shooting 62.1 percent (18 of 29) from the field this season.
 
"I'm just looking to set screens, get open shots and shoot layups," Taylor said.
 
MSU Denver converted a high percentage of its open shots and layups, not to mention a handful of difficult ones, while shooting 51.0 percent (25 of 49) from the field. The Roadrunners have made at least half their shots in all five games of their winning streak.
 
A combination of the sharp shooting, and defense that caused the Skyhawks to shoot just 35.9 percent from the field, contributed to the Roadrunners' 48-29 rebounding advantage (offensive rebounds were even, at 11-11). Fort Lewis gave itself a chance by committing just six turnovers while forcing 17 by MSU Denver. The Skyhawks had 15 more field goal attempts, but still made two fewer, and they were just 4 of 23 from 3-point range.
 
"If we don't start taking care of the basketball better, it's going to bite us," Bahl said. "Seventeen turnovers is way too many. We shot over 50 percent from the field and we were plus-19 on the glass, but we only won by 10."

That's something that can be addressed tomorrow.
 
For now, the Roadrunners have climbed into a six-way tie for third place in the RMAC at 4-2.
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"Our confidence is pretty high right now," Taylor said. "We're starting to make our mark."