DENVER – The MSU Denver men's basketball team took care of business Friday night, posting a relatively easy win over a last-place team while running past Adams State 82-66.
 
A season-long pursuit for the Roadrunners has been closing out games when in position to win.
 
"We sort of did it," MSU Denver coach Dan Ficke said. "We didn't do it quite as early as I would have liked, or by as much as I would've liked."
 
Now comes the hard part.
 
Fort Lewis (17-2 overall, 11-2 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference), ranked No. 17 in the Division II coaches' poll and fresh off a road win Friday over Colorado School of Mines – ranked fifth in the coaches poll and sixth by sports information directors – comes to the Auraria Event Center for Saturday's 6 p.m. game. The contest will be televised locally on KWGN-Channel 2.
 
"It's a great opportunity and we're looking forward to it," guard Luke Jones said. "We take every game just as seriously as the next. We'll have the same intensity, and hopefully more, than this one. I'm sure the adrenaline of playing a ranked team will come into play. We'll be ready."
 
Said senior Tyrei Randall: "It's another opportunity to play one of the best teams in the nation on our home floor."
 
MSU Denver – which has the third-best all-time winning percentage in the history of Division II men's basketball – has had its share of great moments on its home floor. The Roadrunners are celebrating many of them this weekend as the 2012-13 national runner-up team and the 2001-02 national championship team are being recognized.
 
Friday was set aside for the 2012-13 team, which had several members of that roster in attendance to be recognized at halftime. Several other players, still playing professionally, delivered pre-recorded video messages.
 
"It gets us back to our roots and it shows that, if you put in the work, and you have the dedication, you can put banners up in the rafters," Randall said.
 
Said Ficke: "It was awesome. Those guys were great. Coach (Derrick) Clark was great. Guys were at shootaround and talked to our players afterwards, and just gave them some great insights about loving each other, being together, competing every day, accepting your role."
 
The former players, including MSU Denver Athletics Hall of Fame inductee Jonathan Morse, also chatted with the current players in the post-game locker room.
 
"J-Mo capped it off after the game and said, 'That's how you're supposed to play if you're at Metro,'" Ficke said. "We've got to get comfortable doing that and rising to that level every game."
 
Randall scored 18 points, raising his career total – which includes two seasons at Division I Rider – to 962 points.
 
"He's a pivotal part of this team," Jones said. "We lean on him a lot. We look to him for guidance and leadership, basketball-wise and for team energy and morale. And even if he's not playing well, he keeps us together as a team."
 
Jones did a little bit of everything off the bench, with a season-high 14 points, five rebounds and five assists while recording a game-high plus-18 rating.
 
"Luke puts in the work," Randall said. "And I'm glad he was able to show all that hard work pay off."
 
Hard-working forward Chandler Bevans scored four points and matched his MSU Denver high with 10 rebounds. Redshirt freshman guard Jaden Kennis scored nine and true freshman guards Brayden Maldonado and Quave Propst-Allison each scored eight. It was Propst-Allison's first career start.
 
After Friday's dress rehearsal, now comes Saturday's main event against Fort Lewis.
 
"They have a similar style to Adams State, but with a higher-caliber roster," Ficke said. "We can't start slow and spot them a big lead (Adams State led 13-4 Friday). We've got to be better in transition defense, and we've got to take care of the ball better. We did a good job tonight of not letting them capitalize on our turnovers, but we can't have 18 turnovers again tomorrow night.
 
"It's a big challenge for us, a chance to take on a ranked team and hopefully knock them off."
 
Despite a rough start to the league season, MSU Denver (8-11 overall) finds itself 5-8 in the RMAC. The league's sixth-place team (UCCS) has seven losses, as does eighth-place Regis. Seventh-place Westminster has eight losses, as does four other RMAC teams, including MSU Denver and two teams it has beaten (CSU Pueblo and New Mexico Highlands).
 
The top eight teams at season's end advance to the RMAC Tournament, and clearly MSU Denver is in position to get there.
 
"We know we're the dark horse of this conference, whether other teams know that or not," Jones said. "We have a belief, a confidence in ourselves, that these next few weeks we're going to turn a lot of heads."