Regis Digs First Half Hole and Can't Recover Falling to Metro State 85-71

Denver, Colo.: The Regis men's basketball team were forced into 20 turnovers and dropped their final road game of the season 85-71 to crosstown rival Metro State.  The Rangers shot 63.3 percent from the field in the second half but it wasn't enough as Metro State led at halftime 50-23.

Metro State (20-6. 13-5 RMAC) scored the first 11 points of the game and 18 of the first 22 points.  Regis (8-18, 3-15 RMAC) had nine points in the first eight and a half minutes while scoring just 10 points.  The 50-23 halftime margin was the biggest lead for Metro State in the first half and the biggest halftime deficit for Regis this season.

Regis hit on just 30 percent from the field in the first half, while Metro State connected on 54.5 percent. 

The Rangers trailed by as many as 30 points in the second half and at the 7:34 mark with Regis trailing 76-47 the Rangers made the Auraria Events Center crowd a little nervous.  Junior Curtis Mitchell scored 13 of his game-high 26 points in the final 7:34 helping the Rangers outscore the Roadrunners 24-9 to make the final score 85-71.

The difference in the game was the Roadrunners were able to score 25 points off Rangers turnovers while Regis scored just 11.  Regis was able to outrebound the taller Roadrunners 38-37 including 17 offensive rebounds.  The Ranger offense did an amazing job of distributing the ball dishing out 25 assists on 28 made field goals.

Mitchell's 26 points comes on the heels of his career-high 34 points Saturday night against Chadron State.  Over the last three games Mitchell has averaged 24 points per game and has hit 11-of-20 from three-point range and 27-of-41 (.651) from the field.

Sophomore Chris Johansen had another solid night with 18 points, nine rebounds and six assists.  Johansen has scored in double figures in each of the last six games and has averaged 13.7 points per game.  He is 38-for-59 (.644) from the field and averaging 7.3 rebounds per contest.

The RMAC's second leading scorer at 22.7 points per game had just 12 points tonight on 5-of-18 shooting.  Senior Matt Rosinski did grab a career-high nine rebounds however.  Fellow senior Bill Brandenburg led all rebounders with 11 caroms.  Senior Stevie Ledesma had a career-high seven assists helping the Rangers to a season-high 25.

Jonathan Morse had 16 points to pace Metro State on 7-of-9 shooting.  Reggie Evans and Donte Nicholas chipped in with 14 and 12 points respectively.

Regis will finish their season on Saturday night at 5:00 p.m. as they take on the Mountain Lions from UC-Colorado Springs.

Click here for boxscore.