LAKEWOOD, Colo. – Laolu Oke, Keyshaad Dixon and Tyrei Randall made the key plays in the final two minutes as MSU Denver finished the game on a 10-2 run to pull out a 66-59 road victory Tuesday night at Colorado Christian.
 
"We challenged all of our players and told them that's it's OK to make mistake, and we don't have to be perfect, but we need to be perfect with our effort and our competitiveness," MSU Denver coach Michael Bahl said. "And that's exactly what we did."
 
Dixon, the Roadrunners' point guard, used his strength advantage for a post-up basket with 1:45 left to put the Roadrunners ahead to stay at 58-57, then assisted on Oke's layup that made it 60-57 with 1:10 to go.
 
"I don't really have words for how Key played," Bahl said. "He's a blue-collar guy, and he's a guy you want in that foxhole with you, and I'm sure glad we had him tonight."

Colorado Christian's Ross Williams made two free throws to cut the gap to one point, but then Dixon assisted again on Oke's half hook in the low post to make it 62-59 with 36 seconds left.
 
"I was really hard on Laolu over these past 48 hours, and really challenged him," Bahl said. "And he responded, and made some huge plays for us. I'm happy he scored 20 points, but his energy and effort defensively and ball screen coverage was outstanding."

Oke blocked Williams' layup on the other end, and Randall grabbed the rebound and made two free throws with 17 seconds to go, and he did the same after another Cougars miss with nine seconds left to salt it away with the game's final points.
 
Oke finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds while making 9 of 11 from the field, and he also added four assists and two blocked shots. Dixon had a career-high 15 points to go with nine assists and Randall scored 19 while making 6 of 10 from the field, and he also had seven rebounds.

"Ty is just playing a pretty high level right now," Bahl said. "I'm happy he's scoring, but I'm more proud of his leadership. He just wants to win, and you can tell by the way he's playing." 
 
MSU Denver (8-2 overall, 2-2 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) started strong, leading 20-9 to start the game. But the Roadrunners were outscored 19-4 in the last 10 minutes of the first half and trailed 28-24 at the break.
 
The Roadrunners recovered and pushed the lead to 47-39 with 9:18 left on a Randall free throw, but the Cougars answered with a 10-2 run to tie the game 49-49 with 6:18 to go and took a 52-51 lead with 4:44 left.
 
The Cougars led 54-53, but Maris Colton hit a clutch 3 to give the Roadrunners the lead once again at the 3:31 mark.
 
Williams put CCU ahead one last time at 58-56 with 2:53 to go, but then Dixon, Oke and Randall took over.