DURANGO, COLO. – The MSU Denver men's basketball team started slowly and was unable to recover Friday night in a an 80-61 loss at Nos. 5 and 6 Fort Lewis.
 
Fort Lewis scored the first 17 points of the game and led by a wide margin the rest of the way.
 
"The first five or six minutes we had some good looks, but we missed a bunch of layups and some wide open 3s, and they didn't," MSU Denver coach Dan Ficke said. "And the way they score, it's tough to catch up. Other than the first six minutes we played them even, but unfortunately we had that first six minutes.
 
"We looked like a young team in the first six minutes, and they looked like the veteran team that they are."
 
Fort Lewis improved to 25-2 overall and 19-2 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, while MSU Denver dropped to 11-16 and 8-13.
 
The Roadrunners, who wrap up the regular season Saturday at 14^th-place Adams State (5-22, 3-18) can – unofficially – still qualify for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament with a win and a loss by either Regis or UCCS.
 
"Tonight wasn't our night," Ficke said. "Now we move on and play for our season tomorrow."
 
Tyrei Randall led MSU Denver with 14 points, while Quave Propst-Allison added 11.