DENVER – Sometimes you can do everything right and it just doesn't quite make a difference.
 
Adams State guard Destan Williams enhanced his reputation as a pain to all things Roadrunner on Tuesday night, scoring 35 points and adding seven assists to lead the Grizzlies to a 78-66 victory over MSU Denver in the quarterfinals of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament.
 
"He hooped today," MSU Denver wing Tyrei Randall said. "Give him credit."
 
MSU Denver led 30-22 with five minutes left in the first half and seemed to be taking command, but Williams scored 11 points in the next 3:41 to get Adams State right back into it and helped his team to a 35-34 halftime lead.
 
"In the playoffs, in games like this, our goal was to make them take some tough shots," MSU Denver coach Michael Bahl said. "He got going towards the end of the first half. He made some step-back, contested, tough shots.
 
"Give him credit. That's not the first time I've seen him do that. It wasn't an aberration, that's sort of how he plays. If he's making them, they're really tough to guard. Give him credit, he made the tough shots."
 
Williams did that in the regular season meeting, too, scoring 26 as Adams State rallied from a 12-point deficit in the final seven minutes to win 87-81.
 
MSU Denver took several small leads in the second half Tuesday, the last at 54-53 with 9:23 left on a basket by Laolu Oke, but just couldn't overcome a night when Williams' hot shooting on difficult shots was contagious – the Grizzlies hit 48.1 percent from the field and made 20 of 21 free throws.
 
"They were making tough shots," Oke said. "They were the better team tonight, so that's a credit to them."
 
After a two-year absence from the RMAC Tournament, the fourth-seeded Roadrunners were unable to advance and dropped to 9-8. Adams State improved to 10-8.
 
Randall and Kobe Sanders each scored 20 points for MSU Denver, while Oke had his fourth straight double-double and his seventh in the last eight games with 14 points and 13 rebounds. Oke also had three assists and a career-high four steals.
 
But, while Oke was 7 of 10 from the field, the rest of the Roadrunners shot in tough luck, connecting on 17 of 53 (32.1 percent) to finish at 38.1 percent as a team.
 
"We wanted to win so badly," Bahl said. "Sometimes, you go into half after you were up eight and now you're down one, and the momentum goes back to them.
 
"But I thought our guys did a good job fighting back. One or two plays here or there didn't go our way. I thought we had some really good looks. We moved the basketball and we were on the tip of the rim. Things just don't go your way sometimes."