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Roadrunners living in 7th heaven
Metro wins RMAC title after outlasting Adams State in finals
By Eric Lansing
lansing@mscd.edu

Photo by Amie Cribley • acribley@mscd.edu Honorary coach Brandon Wise, bottom, celebrates with Veikalas, top, as they pose for a picture. Veikalas scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds for the Roadrunners.

The men’s basketball team waltzed through the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference this season, posting a 17-2 record. This time, the Roadrunners moonwalked through the conference tournament as they defeated Colorado Christian 86-81 at Auraria Events Center in the first round of the RMAC Shootout championship tournament.

The ’Runners then went on to Pueblo, where they defeated Fort Lewis 73-58 in the semifinals and Adams State 70-60 in the finals for their seventh conference championship since 1999.

“It was a heck of a game,” said Brannon Hays, Metro’s first-year head coach, who took over for Mike Dunlap in 2006. “I really thought Adams State came out well. Every time we tried to push away, they did a nice job of working their way back into the game. At the same time, our guys kept stepping up and answering. I’m very proud of the team and very excited about (the championship).”

The Grizzlies never held the lead in the championship game, but that was no indication of the game’s intensity. Metro built up many leads during the game, but the Grizzlies fought back into contention each time.

The Roadrunners worked their way up to a 12-point lead at the 8:08 mark of the first half before Grizzlies forward Roman Moniak went on a late run with two consecutive layups and a jumper in the next 79 seconds. Adams went to the locker room at the half, down by only a three-point deficit.

The Roadrunners flew out of the gates in the second half with a run of their own, outscoring the Grizzlies 21-7 and pushing their lead to 18 points at the 9:18 mark. Metro guard Marquise Carrington scored nine points in the run.

But Adams State still had one run left in them as forward Wes Jensen got the large crowd of Grizzlies fans to erupt with a 3-pointer that put the score at 56-38. A minute later, Jensen hit another 3-pointer, followed by guard David Hull’s baseline jumper. Moniak then added a layup for the Grizzlies, and Jensen nailed two more from the 3-point arc to pull Adams within five.

After Grizzlies guard Marcus Mortensen hit one of two from the charity stripe, the lead was cut to four for the ’Runners with 3:07 left to play. But Hays and his team never swayed, putting the clamps down on defense and keeping the Grizzlies from scoring the rest of the way. Metro hit 6-of-8 from the free-throw line to finish the game, and the tournament, as conference champs.

Senior forward Michael Bahl has experienced two previous RMAC Shootout titles in 2004 and 2005, but said there was uncertainty about the team’s chances this season, with the coaching change and the loss of three key players from last year’s squad.

“It’s a major relief,” Bahl said about winning his third conference title. “Coming into this season, a lot of people had their doubts about us, but I thought the team did excellent this year. It’s a big win for us. It’s always big to win both regular season and conference championships.”

Bahl scored 11 points and added five assits in the championship game and was named to the All-RMAC tournament team with his performance. Fellow forward Jesse Wagstaff was also named to the All-RMAC team and earned the tournament’s most valuable award, filling up the stat sheet in three games with 67 points, 28 rebounds, nine assists, six steals and two blocks.

Hays said it was great to have such a versatile player in Wagstaff, who can get it done in the paint as well as on the glass.

He added that players such as Carrington, Terrell Burgess, Bahl and Benas Veikalas get so much attention from opposing defenses that Wagstaff will step out and be open on the perimeter and, more times than not, stick the big shot.

When asked if winning the RMAC tournament relieved the pressured of coming into the season in the shadow of Dunlap, Hays said that every coaching job comes with a ton of pressure, and that is was an honor to follow Dunlap at Metro.

“Following in (Dunlap’s) footsteps is a big deal,” Hays said. “In my mind, he’s the best coach in the country. But our biggest thing this year was I’m not coach Dunlap. I’ve got to be who I am and coach the way I coach.”

Bahl said the conference championship will propel them into the NCAA tournament with a lot of momentum and confidence. But Hays stressed that his team needs to enjoy the victory for the next few days before getting back on the practice court to prepare for their next NCAA Division II tournament opponent.

Metro ended up with the No. 3 seed in the North Central Region and will again face the No. 6-seeded Grizzlies for the second time in two weeks. The first-round matchup will take place March 10 in Winona, Minn.