RAPID CITY, S.D. – That's the Maris Colton we remember.
 
Hampered nearly all season by injuries, MSU Denver's senior forward came up big Thursday night with a season-high 14 points – including five in the final 2:27 – as the Roadrunners grabbed another huge road win, 70-64 at South Dakota Mines.
 
After South Dakota Mines had used a 9-2 run to close within 61-59, Colton scored on a nifty post move, finishing with a left-hand half-hook, to double the lead to four points with 2:27 left.
 
Mines answered with a 3, but Reggie Gibson drove and scored with 1:30 left to make it 65-62 MSU Denver.
 
And, when Mines couldn't counter, Colton doubled the lead again, this time with a corner 3-pointer with 40 seconds left, practically putting the game out of reach at 68-62.
 
"Maris Colton has really stepped up for us," MSU Denver coach Michael Bahl said. "He's been through a lot of ups and downs, but he just keeps his head down and his mouth shut and works his butt off. He's a winner and I couldn't be more proud of him."
 
The Roadrunners' win put them 7-6 overall and in firm command of third place in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference at 7-5.
 
More importantly, it put them (unofficially, according to calculations by the MSU Denver sports information department) in third place in the point system that the RMAC will use to determine qualifiers for the league tournament at the end of the regular season. The top four teams earn first-round home games.
 
The Roadrunners, despite being tied for third, had entered the week in 10^th (unofficially) in the RMAC's point-system standings before earning critical wins at Colorado Christian and South Dakota Mines.
 
MSU Denver has now won three straight road games for the first time since Dec. 16 through 30, 2017.
 
"We have a team full of guys who are starting to care more about winning than personal stats," Bahl said. "They are starting to believe, and you can see that with how we are playing."
 
Mines dropped to 7-8, both overall and in the RMAC.
 
It wasn't just all Colton on Tuesday, of course.
 
Gibson continued his second-half-of-the-season surge with 14 points, five rebounds and three assists off the bench.
 
RMAC Defensive Player of the Year candidate Laolu Oke, who had averaged 14.0 rebounds over his previous eight games, matched his second-worst rebounding game of the season (with five, seven below his average) but still had 10 points on perfect 5-for-5 shooting while matching a career-high with three steals.
 
Kobe Sanders had 11 points, and fellow freshman Ben Joelson scored eight of his career-best nine points in the first half, helping the Roadrunners overcome an early 12-3 deficit.
 
"Ben Joelson hasn't played much lately, but he gave us a huge spark off the bench and his teammates were so excited for him," Bahl said.
 
The Roadrunners are back in action Monday, with a 6 p.m. home game against CSU-Pueblo.