DENVER – MSU Denver's
Laolu Oke solidified his status as one of the best rebounders in program history Monday night as he grabbed 14 more boards to set the program's single-season record with 305.
Despite Oke's 16-point, 14-rebound, five-steal game, and despite leading by five points early in the second half, the Roadrunners fell victim to an extended scoring run by red-hot Fort Lewis and dropped an 80-57 decision at the Auraria Event Center.
"Congratulations to Laolu on the all-time rebound record for a season," MSU Denver coach
Michael Bahl said. "It's very well-deserved.
"I'm so glad we have him and I'm so lucky to coach him. He's my guy. He took a chance on me four years ago and he's done more than I would have ever expected from him."
In the past few weeks, Oke has shot past the likes of Australian national team members Nick Kay and Mitch McCarron, MSU Denver Hall of Famer Rich Grosz, legendary early 2000s leader Lester Strong, late 1980s star Shun Tillman and workhorse Jonathan Morse of the more recent version of national-title contending Roadrunners on the single-season list.
To put Oke's accomplishment in perspective, there is perhaps no better source than Bahl, who played with Strong as a Roadrunner and was an assistant coach during Morse's career.
"I thought Jonathan Morse was the best rebounder I've ever seen," Bahl said. "What makes Laolu different is his ability to rebound not only in his area, but outside his area. With J-Mo, if the ball came to him in his 3-foot area, he was going to get the rebound. But Laolu can rebound not only in his 3-foot area but he can get them in a 9-foot area.
"In body-type and athleticism, he's very similar to Lester. But Lou is more fast-twitch, and he's better going east and west. Lester was really good going north-south, straight line rebounding. But Laolu's ability to go left-right and forward-backward is something I've never seen before."
Oke entered Monday ranked second in NCAA Division II in rebounds with 291 and was third in the country with 11.6 rebounds per game.
He also needed seven rebounds to move from fourth to first while passing Tillman's 1989-90 total (294) and Morse's totals of 296 (2012-13) and 297 (2011-12).
He did it in 9 minutes, 45 seconds of playing time.
"If we had a better (won-loss) record, I think he would be a borderline first team All-American, in my opinion," Bahl said. "Hopefully he gets the credit that he deserves. He's a no-brainer for first team all-conference and he should be first-team all-region, too. He's had a strong enough season that he should get those accolades, because he's worked his tail off."
He's now averaging 14.2 points and 11.7 rebounds per game, including 11.7 points and 15.0 rebounds over three games in the last four days.
After a solid first half,
Tyrei Randall's conventional three-point play gave MSU Denver a 39-34 lead with 19:42 left in the game.
But Fort Lewis, which improved to 18-7 overall and 14-5 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, scored 29 straight points to turn a 42-40 deficit into a 69-42 lead and cruised to the finish. MSU Denver dropped to 16-10 and 10-10.
"I thought we competed and played hard, you just go through stretches – and I think a lot of teams are like this – where you miss some easy shots or open 3s and it sort of snowballs and once it picks up steam it's really hard to stop it," Bahl said. "That's sort of what the case was.
"When you play a Top 25-type team like they are, they're going to capitalize on that stuff. It's unfortunate that the game went that way."
Fort Lewis shot 63.3 percent from the field in the second half (19 of 30), including 14 of 19 for 73.7 percent for the first 13 minutes. MSU Denver shot 13 percent (3 of 23) in that same 13-minute stretch.
It was a tough finish to a tough three-game weekend in which the Roadrunners lost to teams that have gone a combined 16-0 when not playing one another since Jan. 28.
MSU Denver had started the weekend on a three-game winning streak.
"Every team goes through ups and downs," Bahl said. "We were playing really well after we beat Regis, Christian and South Dakota Mines. We came home and we were very confident, had a really, really good start of the first half and start of the second half against New Mexico Highlands but again that snowball started going. It creeped back in again tonight, and that's unfortunate."
