COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – After an incredible comeback from a 19-point second-half deficit, the Metropolitan State University of Denver men's basketball team came up just short Friday night in a 71-70 loss at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
Trailing 58-39 with 9:03 left, MSU Denver wasn't done. The Roadrunners were just getting started.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by freshman
Demetrius Jackson (Lake Forest, Calif./El Toro) pulled MSU Denver within 60-50 at the 6:46 mark. Then
Druce Asah (Tracy, Calif./Tracy) – on his way to tying the school record he holds with two other players with nine made 3-pointers in a game – knocked down a 3 to make it 60-53.
Andrew Mork hit a couple of free throws. Then
Garrett Carter (Rialto, Calif./Etiwanda) made a 3 and it was 65-58, but there was only 3:21 left.
Then freshman guard
Marcus Jefferson (Lewisville, Texas/Lewisville) made back-to-back 3s in a span of 49 seconds and suddenly the Roadrunners were within one, 65-64, with 2:38 left.
Then Asah hit – of course – a 3 to give the Roadrunners their first lead of the game, 67-65, with 1:47 to play.
UCCS scored its final six points at the free throw line, starting with four straight free throws for a 69-67 lead with 52 seconds to go.
But Asah hit yet another 3, this one with 37 seconds left, to give MSU Denver a 70-69 advantage.
Two more free throws by Elijah Ross put UCCS back in front 71-70 with 13 seconds left.
MSU Denver had a couple of chances in the closing seconds, but Asah couldn't connect on a drive down the lane. After the ball went out of bounds with two seconds left, the Roadrunners couldn't find an open player on the inbounds pass, which deflected out of bounds off the hands of an MSU Denver player.
"It was another hard-fought game," MSU Denver coach
Michael Bahl said. "Very proud of the boys and how hard they competed until the bitter end."
Asah scored a career-high 31 points and matched the 9 for 16 performance he had from long range in a win over Colorado Christian on Dec. 8 by making 9 of 14 on Friday. He already shared the school record of nine 3s in a game set by Jeremy Ward against Arizona Bible on Dec. 2, 1995, and tied by Marquise Carrington against UCCS on Feb. 14, 2009.
Including his two seasons at Cal State East Bay, Asah has now scored 955 points as a college player.
MSU Denver made 14 of 28 shots from 3-point range, including 11 of 17 tries in the second half. The Roadrunners made their last six from long distance and eight of their last nine.
Jefferson added 12 points and a team-high six assists. Asah had a team-best seven rebounds.
The second-half comeback wasn't even the first of the game for MSU Denver. The Roadrunners fell behind 15-0 out of the gate and eventually trailed 30-13 in the first half.
But they finished the first half on a 10-2 run to get within 32-23, and a strong start to the second half saw them pull within 35-31 before UCCS started drawing away again.
UCCS improved to 13-9 overall and 10-6 in the RMAC.
MSU Denver's snakebit season continues as it lost by six points or less for the ninth time, including seven times in league play, in dropping to 8-12 and 6-10. The Roadrunners have lost their last three games by a total of six points.
The Roadrunners have another tall task in front of them Saturday at 7 p.m. as they play on the road at Colorado School of Mines, ranked Nos. 12 and 17 nationally in NCAA Division II. The Orediggers are 19-3 overall, including 16-0 in the RMAC. They have won 18 straight games, including a 77-71 win at MSU Denver on Jan. 25.
"Our focus goes now to the Colorado School of Mines," Bahl said.
