DENVER – Mario Lacy, Jr., was working overtime Sunday afternoon.
 
And that was before overtime even started.
 
Once MSU Denver's game with No. 16 Fort Hays State (Kan.) went to the extra session, Lacy took over by scoring the first six points to put the Roadrunners ahead to stay.
 
MSU Denver held on for a 75-71 victory, capping a two-win week against nationally-ranked opponents.
 
"Whenever my team needs me to score, or whatever they need from me, I want them to go to me," Lacy said. "I couldn't do it without them. It was a team win. A great win."
 
Lacy, a 6-foot-8 senior forward who transferred to MSU Denver from Belmont Abbey (N.C.) this season, recorded his 22^nd career double-double with 14 points and a career-high 16 rebounds.
 
"He was feeling it all game and played really well," guard Brayden Maldonado said. "Got to feed the big fella. He rebounded well and blocked a lot of shots. We have so much belief in him."
 
Now at 4-0 and, coupled with Thursday's win at Nos. 7/4 West Texas A&M, MSU Denver seems likely to be in position to receive votes in the national polls and perhaps could find itself in the Top 25 for the first time since the end of the 2014-15 season.
 
"As a team, we're not worried about if we're ranked or not," Lacy said. "We're just going to keep stacking wins, keep playing hard as much as we can. The wins make us proud, but that doesn't change anything. We're going to keep playing hard and keep doing what we need to do on the floor."
 
This was a win the Roadrunners seemed to have in hand several times, like on Maldonado's 3-pointer that made it 54-40 with 7:50 left, or on Lacy's dunk for a 58-45 advantage with 5:43 to play, and again on Maldonado's leaning jumper for a 62-57 lead with 47 seconds to go.
 
But Fort Hays State (2-1), unranked in the preseason coaches' poll but tied for 16^th in last week's D2SIDA poll, wouldn't go away.
 
The Tigers hit a 3-pointer from the right corner at the regulation buzzer to force overtime.
 
"It was a great job by our guys to stick with it, to play through the adversity, especially with the big shot," MSU Denver coach Dan Ficke said. "It's easy when a team hits a big shot like that to send it to overtime that they take the momentum and come out and beat you, but we took the momentum right back with those first three possessions."
 
Maldonado, coming off a sensational 27-point game at West Texas A&M that included sinking the game-winning 3 with 1.5 seconds to go, scored 14 of his 21 points after halftime while adding five rebounds, five assists and four steals.
 
"Last year I was really impatient, and at the beginning of the game I would have forced a lot more shots," Maldonado said. "Just knowing how much I'll play, how the offense works, and just taking good shots has been a big growth for me from last year. I believe in my coaches, and I believe in my teammates. I know they'll find me. I've just got to make shots."
 
Caleb McGill added 15 points, seven rebounds and three assists, while Lacy – in addition to his double-double – had three steals and two blocked shots.
 
Maldonado, Lacy, McGill and Quave Propst-Allison combined to shoot 61.1 percent from the field (22 of 36).
 
"Brayden is learning how to be the guy," Ficke said. "He and Caleb are 1A and 1B. Some nights it's Caleb, some nights it's him. They have each other to play off, and then they have a good supporting cast of Rio (Lacy), Ryan (Maslow), KJ (Garrett), Quave and Marzouq (Ibn Abdur-Razaaq) where they know they have guys who have their back and can pick up the slack.
 
"B is really learning how to let it come to him, to not force it, but then to also know when to take over. He's stepped up time after time all year."
 
Not only is it the first time the Roadrunners have beaten ranked teams in back-to-back games since defeating Colorado School of Mines and Midwestern State (Texas) in the 2014 NCAA Division II Tournament, it's also the first time they've even played ranked teams in two consecutive games since those same matchups.
 
And, despite some hiccups throughout the game, the Roadrunners came up with another win.
 
"We've had a crazy schedule, going to South Dakota (for two wins), coming back, going to Texas, getting home at 3 in the morning (Friday), and then having an early tip on a Sunday against a quality opponent," Ficke said. "Our legs were a little tired.
 
"It's learning how to win and how to handle success. Last year there weren't many wins in a row, and this group has to learn to how to sustain it, how to handle coming off beating the No. 4 team in the country and coming back ready to play without feeling too good about yourselves. I thought we did handle it well. We threw the first punch to start the game, to start the second half, and in overtime. I'm liking how we're starting. It's just learning how to win and with new guys doing it."