BOULDER, Colo. – The MSU Denver men's basketball team finished up its challenging weekend of exhibition games against high-level Division I teams Saturday night at Colorado, falling to the Buffaloes 69-45.
 
MSU Denver, which played at Wyoming on Friday and pushed the Cowboys to the end in 79-67 defeat, held Colorado to 37.5 percent shooting from the field in the first half, but was limited offensively and still trailed 33-18 at the break.
 
The Roadrunners were outscored 36-27 in the second half.
 
'"It was a good defensive effort for the most part," MSU Denver coach Dan Ficke said. "Their size inside bothered us, especially in the first half, and they really dominated the paint. But we knew going in that they were going to be bigger than us at every position. It was a great challenge with their length and athleticism, even moreso than last night."
 
Brayden Maldonado led the Roadrunners with 10 points, and fellow sophomore guard Quave Propst-Allison added eight. Forwards Caleb McGill and Mario Lacy, Jr., each had six points while making a combined 6 for 9 from the field.
 
"Brayden has really started to establish himself in the lead guard role as major, consistent scoring threat whereas last year he was learning the point as a freshman," Ficke said. "Now he's going to be able to score a bit more. Rio (Lacy) and Caleb were efficient playing against guys even bigger than them.
 
"We haven't quite found our footing with our shooting, and some of that is the speed of the game and the athleticism we've been facing, and some of it is just getting comfortable. But there were lots of good things to see."
 
Freshman forward Marzouq Ibn Abdur-Razaaq had a game-high eight rebounds in 21 minutes off the bench.
 
"Marzouq is playing hard and being a factor defensively," Ficke said.
 
MSU Denver will now begin fine-tuning and preparing for its Nov. 10 season opener against Arkansas-Fort Smith in Spearfish, S.D.
 
"What this weekend was about was getting in-game practice, and we did that," Ficke said. "We'll learn from watching the film, and we've learned from what we saw, and we'll be ready to get going in two weeks."