DENVER – Five games into the season, it's clear the pieces are there for the MSU Denver women's basketball team.
Now it's a matter of putting them all together.
MSU Denver was outscored by a total of just one point in the first, third and fourth quarters, but it was a stretch late in the second quarter and early in the third that made the difference Friday night in a 77-64 loss to Northern State (S.D.).
"There were times when we were really, really good," Metropolitan State University of Denver coach
Tanya Haave said. "We just have to work on our consistency."
Northern State (3-3) jumped out to a 9-0 lead, but MSU Denver bounced right back and eventually built a 21-17 lead at the 7:27 mark of the second quarter.
The Wolves responded though and led 38-25 at the break by finishing the half on a 10-0 run.
Then Northern State opened the second half on a 13-5 run to build its biggest lead of the game before MSU Denver (0-5) hung tough the rest of the way.
"The start of the second half, we couldn't get a stop, we couldn't score, and we were never really able to recover from that," Haave said.
Mariah Schroeder scored a career-high 14 points and added five assists, while
Maggie Justinak,
Morgan Lewis and
Leya Harvey all scored 11. It was an MSU Denver career-best for Harvey, a transfer from Division I Utah Valley. Justinak had three steals.
Meanwhile,
Bree Wellington had five points, five rebounds and three steals, while
Jaiden Galloway had four points, three rebounds and five assists.
Harvey and
Kimauri Toia showed flashes of what could turn into a strong low post game for the Roadrunners.
Meanwhile, the strong response to the early 9-0 deficit was memorable. The next step is to be able to make another one when necessary.
"I thought we had gotten over the top in the second quarter," Haave said. "They came at us, we recovered, then they stepped it up again. Right now, we're not able to respond to that."
The Roadrunners are back in action Saturday, with a 4 p.m. home game against Central Washington.
