DENVER – The MSU Denver women's basketball team has matched league champion Colorado Mesa as the best team in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference over the past 13 games, with a record of 11-2.
 
But the Roadrunners' opponent tonight in a first-round RMAC/Under Armour Tournament game has been the RMAC's best over the past seven games.
 
Regis went 6-1 down the stretch to not only qualify for the tournament, but the Rangers also posted the kind of high-quality wins they needed to help them emerge through tiebreaking procedures as the No. 6 seed.
 
"We're capable of making a run," Metropolitan State University of Denver coach Tanya Haave said. "But so is the team we're playing. They've won six of seven. We're playing as well as anybody right now, and Regis is playing as well as anybody.
 
"That's what the playoffs are all about, and that's why it's a great matchup. It's scary. We've had success against them and we're on our home court, but they are playing as well as us right now."
 
First-round games are taking place Tuesday at home sites of the top four seeds for the tournament, with the semifinals and finals set for Friday and Saturday at the home court of the highest remaining seed after Tuesday's games.
 
The third-seeded Roadrunners (16-12 overall) have gone 11-2 after opening the league season at 2-5. They finished alone in third place at 15-7.
 
"We'd take this 100 times out of 100," Haave said of overcoming the slow start. "We're playing well, we've figured some things out. We're trusting each other. We're getting contributions from different people. Really everything that you'd hope to see a team do throughout the course of a year, we've been able to do. Knock on wood we'll be able to maintain that."
 
MSU Denver won its only meeting of the season with Regis, 58-50, at the Regis Field House back on Dec. 7. But that was eons ago in basketball time, and seemingly even longer ago for two teams who aren't now what they were then.
 
"I think they were going through some of the same things we were," Haave said of the first matchup. "But we just happened to shoot the ball well. We were able to contain their rebounding a bit.
 
"Those early games, you're just coming off the non-conference season and everybody is still trying to figure things out. They're a lot different, and we're a lot different."
 
Regis was 6-9 in league play in 11^th place, two games out of the eighth and final playoff spot, before its late-season surge. The Rangers' only loss since Feb. 2 has been to Mesa, and they posted impressive road wins over Dixie State and second-place Westminster on back-to-back nights Feb. 22 and 23.
 
"They were hanging on by a thread, but they've done a great job to qualify for the playoffs," Haave said. "They've been fantastic. They're coming in with a lot of confidence, and we're coming in with a lot of confidence. It's a good matchup."
 
Jaelynn Smith (Denver, Colo./East), who just posted the second triple double in school history (18 points, 10 rebounds and a school record-tying 14 assists) on Friday, led the Roadrunners during the December meeting against Regis with 19 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
 
The Roadrunners held Regis to 26.9 percent shooting from the field, but also surrendered 10 offensive rebounds and – despite a big advantage in shooting percentage – were outrebounded 37-34.
 
Regis leads the RMAC in offensive rebounds, with an average of 13.9 per game in league play. MSU Denver was second in the league in rebound margin (+9.1 per game) in league play, while Regis was third (+6.2).
 
"That's the key," Haave said. "I think they are the best rebounding team in the conference. We're going to have to try to contain that."
 
It figures to be a classic post-season matchup.
 
"The intensity goes up," Haave said. "Everybody realizes that you've got to win. It's the equivalent of the NCAA tournament – it's win or go home. That's where we are. But that's fun. That's why you play. It's going to be a fun, intense game."