DENVER – Sometimes it just takes a while.
 
The MSU Denver women's basketball team spent most of Friday's first half trying to figure out the 1-3-1 halfcourt trap employed by Texas-Permian Basin.
 
Ultimately, Brooklynn Jones and Kendra Parra came up with the best solutions.
 
Jones and Parra combined to connect on 7 of 11 from 3-point range as the Roadrunners – held to six points for the first 13:40 of the game, grabbed momentum by halftime, led by as many as 16 early in the fourth quarter, then held on for a 56-48 victory in their home opener at the Auraria Event Center.
 
"(The 1-3-1 defense) is something that you don't see very often," MSU Denver coach Tanya Haave said. "No matter how much you try to simulate it in practice, it's hard to do until you go up against it in a game. We settled down and found a little rhythm."
 
Parra, Tosjanae Bonds and Jones all hit 3s in an 11-6 burst as the Roadrunners got within 19-17 late in the second quarter. Then Jones scored on a jumper at the halftime buzzer on an inbounds play that started with 0.4 seconds left.
 
Jones, a true freshman, hit her first five shots from the field – four of them from 3-point range – and scored a career-high 14 points in just 12 minutes.
 
"Brooklynn got hot, and that was huge for us," Haave said. "It opened things up."
 
Said Jones: "My teammates kept telling me to shoot it. They kept finding me and getting me open, so I kept shooting it.
 
"We all just collectively were more patient. Ball fakes were big – they jumped at them."
 
MSU Denver connected on 7 of 13 tries from 3-point range in the middle two quarters – including 7 of 10 while surging to a 37-21 advantage in the third quarter.
 
"We don't really play 1-3-1 or practice against it, and it took us a good quarter and a half to figure out 'ball fake, shot fake,' and no more turnovers," Parra said.
 
Parra, the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's leading scorer coming in the game at 21.4 points per game, finished just above her average with 22 after making 6 of 11 from the field, including 3 of 5 from 3, and 7 of 8 free throws.
 
"If I can drive it and get some fouls, they're going to play the drive," Parra said. "Then I can shoot my jumper. If they close out on the jumper, I can hit some 3s. So incorporating all three of those things helps me out a lot, but my teammates do a good job of finding me – and if I can kick it out, I'll kick it out."
 
Parra also had five rebounds and five steals.
 
Her free throws were big, since the rest of the team was a combined 4 of 16 as MSU Denver ultimately shot about the same from 3-point range (45.0 percent on 9 of 20) as at the charity stripe (45.8 percent on 11 of 24).
 
"We have to be better at the line," Haave said. "Because it really shouldn't have been that close of a game."
 
MSU Denver led 45-29 on a Parra 3 with 7:28 left, and by 11 on a Jaiden Galloway 3 that made it 48-37 to 4:41 to go. But Texas-Permian Basin hung around and got within 52-48 with 29 seconds left.
 
Parra made four straight free throws, though, to close it out.
 
Jones finished 5 of 7 from the field, including 4 of 6 from 3. Mariana Silva Pereira stuffed the stat sheet with seven points, five rebounds and eight assists.
 
MSU Denver finished with 27 turnovers, though 16 of those were in the first half.
 
The Roadrunners wrapped up a difficult non-conference schedule at 2-4, with two straight wins.
 
"Our non-conference schedule has been balanced," Haave said. "It's been hard. But it's been good in that we've seen different styles of play, and that will help us."
 
Said Parra: "Coming off some losses at the beginning, it feels good to get two now. We're going to hit the road again, but the two wins under our belt are good for us."