DENVER – After giving up 153 points in two losses last weekend, the focus for the MSU Denver women's basketball team was clear.
"Defense first," point guard
Jaelynn Smith (Denver, Colo./East) said. "Offense will come, but defense first."
The Roadrunners held Black Hills State to 29.6-percent shooting in the second half, and 34.5 percent overall, in posting a 62-50 victory for their seventh win in nine games on Play4Kay Cancer Awareness Night.
"We needed to get back to what we had been doing," MSU Denver coach
Tanya Haave said.
Smith had 17 points, seven rebounds and seven assists to lead the Roadrunners, while senior forward
Mikayla Gonzales (Castle Rock, Colo./Castle View) scored a season-high 14 points while making 7 of 10 from the field.
"I came into the game the same as always, but I felt like they were taking a step off," Gonzales said. "And I scored six points right out of the gate. And of course they are going to concentrate on J (Smith) and Emily (Hartegan)."
Gonzales is averaging 5.6 points per game, but is scoring at a 10.3 clip over her last three.
"We need her to do that," Haave said. "We've been talking with her about that for the last few weeks, and she's been responding."
Said Smith: "She was definitely aggressive tonight, and I'm proud of her for it. We need buckets."
Hartegan added 11 points and a game-high eight rebounds.
The Roadrunners shot 60.9 percent from the field in the first half and 49.0 percent overall.
"We were working together and getting open shots," Haave said. "And we were taking good shots."
MSU Denver improved to 12-12 overall and 11-7 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. The victory allowed the Roadrunners to move into a tie for fifth in the tightly-packed race for third through 11
th place in the league. The top four teams earn first-round home games in the RMAC tournament, and only eight teams qualify.
Black Hills State dropped to 13-9 and 9-9, two games behind MSU Denver in the league, as the Roadrunners completed a two-game sweep of the season series.
"It's big to be able to beat them twice," Smith said. "We don't want to split with teams the way the standings are right now."
MSU Denver is back in action at the Auraria Event Center on Saturday with a 4 p.m. game against South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.
