GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – As No. 4 seeds go in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament, Colorado Mesa is about as good as it gets.
 
Yet, there was MSU Denver – the No. 5 seed despite tying for third in winning percentage – battling the Mavericks to the end Tuesday night before falling 59-53 in a quarterfinal game on the road.
 
"I thought we had, by far, the hardest draw of anyone in the first round," MSU Denver coach Tanya Haave said. "Going to Mesa for us was hard. It would be hard for anybody. But give credit to Mesa."
 
Colorado Mesa is the preseason conference favorite that battled through injuries to its two leading scorers while finishing the regular season at 13-7. Now nearly completely healthy, the Mavericks welcomed a team they beat on the same floor 91-57 on the opening weekend of conference play.
 
In between, the Roadrunners beat a short-handed Mesa in Denver 71-66 on Jan. 15. And MSU Denver (12-6), buoyed by confidence gained while going 11-2 down the stretch, showed the home-court win was no fluke.
 
Though never leading after early in the game, MSU Denver pulled within two points five times in the fourth quarter, including at 52-50 with 1:50 left. But, as with two previous possessions with a chance to tie or take the lead, the Roadrunners were unable to score.
 
A Morgan Lewis 3-pointer got the Roadrunners within 55-53 with 13 seconds to go, but Colorado Mesa scored with seven seconds left to push the lead to four and tacked on two free throws after and MSU Denver miss.
 
"We were closing the gap," Haave said. "It came down to making plays on both ends of the floor, and they just made a couple more than we did."
 
While the stout Colorado Mesa defense held Allie Navarette to 12 points, she got plenty of help as Morgan Lewis had 18 points and eight rebounds, and Tosjanae Bonds had 10 points, seven rebounds and four steals.
 
"Morgan was a warrior," Haave said. "Tosjanae was a warrior."
 
The Roadrunners ultimately couldn't overcome their lowest field goal percentage since the opening weekend of the season, finishing at 31.5 percent from the field, including a season-low 12.5 percent (2 of 16) from 3.
 
"We fought and we had great effort on both ends of the floor," Haave said. "We just didn't make enough shots."