DENVER – MSU Denver was never out of it, but just couldn't get over the hump either, and saw its eight-game women's basketball winning streak come to an end Saturday in a 62-53 home loss to Black Hills State.
"We could never get over the top," MSU Denver coach
Tanya Haave said. "Credit them. They did a good job defensively of taking away stuff that we wanted to do, but I don't know that we executed very well.
"That was the best defense we've seen, and I don't know how well we adjusted to it. Some of it is that we've got to coach better, too."
Black Hills State limited 2,000-career point scorer
Allie Navarette to three points, just the 11
th time in 110 career games that she has been held under 10 points and her lowest total since being held to two in the seventh game of her career. In two seasons with MSU Denver, Navarette had never scored fewer than seven while reaching double figures in 31 of her first 34 games.
"It's usually pretty easy for us to get her the ball, but they did a really good job of keeping it away from her," Haave said. "I think we could have done some things if our timing was better. We could have done a better job of getting it to her, but they did a good job of keeping it out of the paint. We couldn't get her on track and we couldn't get her to the free-throw line."
Navarette, the reigning RMAC Player of the Year, was limited to five field goal attempts and two free throws.
MSU Denver led only briefly, on
Alex Carlton's fast-break layup for a 13-12 advantage with 20 seconds late in the first quarter (the lead lasted until just four seconds into the second quarter), and on Navarette's only field goal, which made it 25-24 with 8:15 left in the third period. That lead lasted for 13 seconds.
"They doubled and sometimes tripled in the post, especially when Allie was in there," said forward
Morgan Griego, who had team bests of nine points and 11 rebounds. "We need to see that and respond better. Playing with Allie, I could've done a better job of taking advantage of those opportunities. And we didn't shoot very well at all from 3. Those are key things we need to make sure we're on. That's what is going to win games."
MSU Denver never trailed by more than 10 and always seemed within striking distance.
Black Hills State went 12 of 31 from 3-point range, outscoring the Roadrunners (who were 4 of 19) 36-12 from long distance. MSU Denver also made just 9 of 16 free throws, though the bulk of that was during a 1 for 7 first half. The 12 baskets from 3 were the most against MSU Denver since early last season.
"They made 12 3s, and we knew we needed to contain and defend the 3-point line," Haave said. "We didn't do a very good job of that."
Carlton also scored nine points for the Roadrunners, who dropped to 13-5 overall and 9-4 and tied for fifth in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. Black Hills State took sole control of fourth place while improving to 12-7 and 10-3.
"Things that we've been getting away with against other teams, we didn't get away with and cost us tonight," Haave said. "We couldn't play our way into the game (as in several slow starts during the winning streak). We could make a mistake and feel like, 'Oh, that's OK.' Those things cost us. That's the fine line when you're playing against the better teams."
Said Griego: "It's the little things. We're at the point of the season where it's the little details that you don't do that hurt you, especially against these better teams. As a group, and me personally, we need to do a better job on that."
Those better teams include first-place Colorado School of Mines, ranked Nos. 12 (coaches) and 5 (media) in the NCAA Division II national polls, which comes to the Auraria Event Center for a 5 p.m. game Friday.
"We don't have much time to dwell on this," Griego said. "Everyone knows that we need to learn from this, and we need to reflect, come back in Monday, work harder and look at what we did wrong and fix it. This week in practice needs to be that much more intense because we've got Mines coming in Friday."
