DENVER – High level men's basketball returned to the Auraria Event Center on Saturday night, and though the outcome may not have been what the home crowd wanted, the game itself signaled that the MSU Denver men's basketball team should expect to be in contention for a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championship.
Colorado Mesa, the defending league co-champions and preseason choice to win the title, escaped the Auraria Event Center with an 85-82 victory in the first matchup of ranked men's teams in the building since 2015.
"It was a great game that went back and forth, and they made one or two more plays than we did," MSU Denver coach
Dan Ficke said. "I'm really proud of our guys' toughness, and the grit they had to stick with it through the run they made early in the second half.
"We were able to come back and take the lead, but we just couldn't finish. We've been on the right side of the bounces most of the time this year, but tonight we weren't."
MSU Denver, lost for the first time this season after opening 7-0 for the first time since 2012-13. Mesa improved to 5-1.
It should be a wild ride, and this was only the first weekend of conference play.
Brayden Maldonado and
KJ Garrett each scored 15 points,
Caleb McGill added 14 and
Marzouq Ibn Abdur-Razaaq had 12. Mario Lacy, Jr., had six points and 11 rebounds.
MSU Denver led by four points with five minutes to play, but then Colorado Mesa scored seven straight points to turn the four-point deficit into a 76-73 lead with just over three minutes to go.
MSU Denver tied the game 78-78 on a second clutch 3 Ibn Abdur-Razaaq.
"Marzouq just keeps getting better every game," Ficke said. "There are some things he needs to learn defensively because he's just a freshman, but he made two huge 3s and he had some big finishes going to the hoop. He's going to be a special player the next four years."
But the Mavericks went back ahead 80-78 with 1:52 left after getting two offensive rebounds on scoring on their third shot of the possession.
The Roadrunners were unable to score on their next two possessions, and Mesa pushed the lead to 82-78 on a layup with 33 seconds left.
Maldonado's fast-break layup got MSU Denver within 82-80 with 22 seconds to go, and then the teams exchanged free throws – Mesa made one, the McGill made two – to make it 83-82 Mesa with 11 seconds to go.
Mesa then made two more free throws for a three-point lead, and Maldonado was unable to get off a tying 3-point attempt before the buzzer.
"We could've gotten Brayden better look at the end," Ficke said. "And we had some good looks on previous possessions that didn't fall for us."
Leading 42-41 at halftime, Mesa pushed out to a nine-point lead at 57-48 with 15:21 to play and was still up by eight, 67-59, with 8:41 left.
But 3-pointers by Maldonado, McGill and
Jaden Kennis helped make it a one-point game, and McGill's jumper capped an 11-2 burst that put the Roadrunners in front 70-69, and then a 3 by
Marzouq Ibn Abdur-Razaaq made it 73-69.
Down the stretch, though, Mesa made a couple more plays.
"This loss won't define us," Ficke said. "It was a great lesson for us. Mesa is a very good team, and we don't feel like we gave them our best shot tonight. We can use this as motivation going forward."
