SPEARFISH, S.D. – Caleb McGill scored a career-high 27 points and Brayden Maldonado added a career-high 20 as MSU Denver opened the men's basketball season with a 101-84 victory Friday over Arkansas-Fort Smith.
 
The Roadrunners led 43-39 at halftime, then used an 8-2 run out of the locker room to build a 51-41 advantage. They led by at least six points the rest of the way.
 
"I thought we executed our offense well," MSU Denver coach Dan Ficke said. "We did a great job of being the aggressor and attacking the basket hard from the beginning of the game. We got to the foul line – we wanted to make more free throws than they attempted, which we did. And we wanted to play inside-out. We felt our big advantage was to play through Caleb and Rio (Mario Lacy, Jr.)."
 
MSU Denver shot 55.4 percent from the field (31 of 56), including 62.1 percent in the second half (18 of 29). The Roadrunners were 5 of 9 from 3-point range in the second half to finish 6 of 14, and for the night made 33 of 37 free throws.
 
The Roadrunners topped 100 points against a Division II team for the first time since a 101-86 victory over Davis & Elkins (W.V.) on Nov. 25, 2016.
 
McGill finished 10 of 17 from the field, including 7 of 9 in the second half, and he was 2 for 3 from 3-point range in the final 20 minutes.
 
"He played like who we think he is in the second half," Ficke said. "After a solid first half, he took over in the second half, scoring from inside and out. We want to establish him playing like that every night to take the pressure off Brayden, and then if we get a third guy to go with them."
 
In addition to his scoring output, Maldonado added five rebounds, five assists and a career-best five steals.
 
Quave Propst-Allison scored 15 points and Mario Lacy, Jr., scored 11.
 
True freshman Marzouq Ibn Abdur-Razaaq had eight points.
 
"We finally got to see what our offense looks like against non-high major players," said Ficke, whose team played exhibitions against Wyoming and Colorado two weeks ago. "We executed well. Brayden made some great decisions and had some timely baskets and steals when they tried to make runs in the second half."
 
The Roadrunners play Oklahoma Christian to complete the weekend on Saturday at 4 p.m.