DENVER – Having lost three straight games and five of six, and then trailing by 12 points after less than 10 minutes against a team ranked as high as No. 13 nationally, things didn't look great for MSU Denver on Saturday against Regis.
 
But never fear.
 
"I need to get a T-shirt that says, 'It's a long game,'" MSU Denver coach Michael Bahl said. "Sometimes I need to remember that, too. It's a game of runs. We had some really good looks and just didn't make them, and defensively we were a little stagnant, a little slow, to start.
 
"But the guys responded. You never lose a game in the first half, and we did a great job of battling back."
 
Led by 28 points from Tyrei Randall, who made 5 of 6 from 3-point range, and another perfect shooting night (9 for 9) and double-double (18 points and 11 rebounds) by Laolu Oke, the Roadrunners rallied for a much-needed 87-81 victory.
 
MSU Denver shot a season-best 58.6 percent from the field – the fifth straight game it has shot better than its season rate – while improving to 14-7 overall and 8-7 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. It was the team's best shooting night since hitting 63.0 percent in an 84-75 win against Western Colorado on Jan. 20, 2018.
 
The Roadrunners knocked off a nationally-ranked team for the first time in three tries dating to their 60-57 win over No. 19 Dixie State (Utah) on Jan. 10, 2020.
 
"The last five or six games, we're playing a lot better offensively," Bahl said. "Our field goal percentage is going up. We're starting to do some really good things offensively. Sometimes the ball doesn't fall your way, but tonight it just did."
 
With the second-highest point total of his career, Randall is back on the upswing from long range – he's made nine of his last 13 (69.2 percent) to improve to 41.5 percent from beyond the arc this season.
 
"Tyrei's making step-back 3s, but his teammates got him some good ones, got him some rhythm ones, and now that makes those step-backs a lot easier," Bahl said.
 
Meanwhile Oke, who set the school record for most field goals made in a game without a miss (12) just eight days earlier, tied what had been the record by going 9 for 9. He's an astounding – ridiculous really – 42 for 48 (87.5 percent) from the field (not free throw line, the field) dating to his final attempt Jan. 21 at UCCS and then including five full games.
 
Ra'Shawn Langston added 12 points, and Keyshaad Dixon had 11 points, eight rebounds and four steals. Maris Colton and Mile Gibson each scored nine.
 
While Regis kept pace with MSU Denver through the end of the first half – the Roadrunners had turned their 12-point deficit into a 44-43 lead – the Rangers (16-4, 11-3) shot 44.2 percent after the break after hitting 57.7 percent in the first half.
 
"It's a one-day prep, and we normally don't switch on double-handoffs and some of the stuff that they're doing – so for our guys to work on it for a 45-minute session in the morning and then go out and do it … and then we got better as the game went on," Bahl said. "And their field goal percentage was a lot lower in the second half. It was a really good job by the guys of locking in and competing, fighting and doing whatever it took to get a win."