DENVER, Colo. -  On Friday night, the Regis University men's basketball team (8-16, 6-12 RMAC) welcomed cross-town rival Metropolitan State University-Denver (15-9, 13-5 RMAC) into the Regis Fieldhouse. Regis was unable to tame the top-ranked team in the Rocky Division of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) after fighting hard in the first half, falling 75-55.

The first half was much different than the second half as the Rangers and the Roadrunners traded baskets and grinded out a tough half. After ten minutes had been played, the score was 18-15 in favor of MSU-Denver. A couple minutes later the Roadrunners extended their lead to 24-18, before RU had an answer. With two minutes to go in the half, Regis had cut the deficit to two, 28-26, on made free throws from junior Noah King, and freshman Jarrett Brodbeck. The teams headed into halftime with a score of 35-29 in favor of MSU-Denver.

After halftime, the Roadrunners turned up the heat on defense as they denied many Rangers opportunities to score. The MSU-Denver defense blocked seven shots, with six of those blocks coming from their center Bounama Keita. After holding the Roadrunners to 37 percent shooting in the first half, the RU defense allowed the visitors to knock down 50 percent of their shots in the second half. 

Brodbeck provided a majority of the scoring for Regis, scoring 15 of his 19 points in the second half. Trailing 49-36, sophomore Dexter Sienko drove the lane and put a shot past Keita, but a 14-0 run put MSU-Denver up 63-38 with almost eight minutes remaining in the second half. The Rangers responded with a 10-2 run of their own to bring the score to 67-48. From then on, RU saw their deficit balloon to as much as 27 points with only two minutes to go in the game. Regis closed the game out with a 7-0 run, ending the night with the Roadrunners taking the game 75-55.

The Rangers were held to their third-lowest scoring game of the season with 55 points. As a team they converted on 17-48 (35.5 percent) shots from the field including 6-21 from beyond the arc. Brodbeck scored a game-high 19 points while Sienko added 14 points and a team-high eight boards. The offense finished the night with seven assists, and 16 points in the paint.

Tomorrow night, the men's basketball team will host the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs Mountain Lions (15-10, 12-6 RMAC) at 7 p.m. at the Regis Fieldhouse.