GUNNISON, Colo. – MSU Denver whittled a 14-point deficit to two with relentless full-court pressure, but a key foul call against Laolu Oke help swing the momentum back in Western Colorado's favor and the Mountaineers went on for a 78-64 victory Saturday over MSU Denver.

Western Colorado shot 51.0 percent from the field and 50 percent from 3-point range (13 of 26).

"Give Western Colorado all the credit," MSU Denver coach Michael Bahl said. "They came out and shot the ball well and put us in a hole. We were playing from behind the entire night and I thought we competed and played hard to get back into the game, so I'm very proud of the guys for doing that. We just dug ourselves too big of a hole at the start, and when you do that on the road, it makes it very difficult."
 
Oke finished with 15 points but Division II's leading rebounder was held to five rebounds by Western Colorado. Miles Gibson added a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds and Tyrei Randall continued his solid outside shooting by making 4 of 7 from 3-point range and scoring a team-high 17 points.
 
Keyshaad Dixon added 13 points for the Roadrunners, who trailed 35-21 in the first half and 53-41 with 13:21 left.
 
MSU Denver had pulled within 58-56 and had the ball trailing 60-56 before Oke was called for an offensive foul, his fourth foul, and was taken out with 6:51 to go. He returned 1:27 later with the Roadrunners trailing 65-59, but was whistled for his fifth foul after a scramble for a rebound just 40 seconds later.
 
"We were very short-handed and we just weren't able to overcome that tonight," Bahl said. "We've got to try to get healthy over these next 48 hours and have to bounce back on Tuesday against Colorado Christian."