DENVER, Colo. – For the second time in as many seasons, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs will play for a conference championship when the Mountain Lions (25-5) take on host team Metropolitan State University of Denver (26-4) at 8 p.m., in the Auraria Event Center. The game will be carried live on Comcast Entertainment Television on channels 105 and 900.
It's a rematch of last year's conference title game, which went in favor of the Roadrunners 77-71. The two teams met last Saturday in the regular season finale and MSU Denver scored the game-winning field goal with 1.2 seconds to play in a 73-72 decision.
Derrick White scored 33 points and made a program-record seven blocked shots as the Mountain Lions earned the 94-86 victory against Adams State. The seven blocked shots also tied the RMAC Shootout single-game record. He is averaging 29 points in the last two games to lead the tournament, and his eight assists per game is second in the tournament.
Alex Welsh is shooting 69.6 percent from the field to lead the student-athletes who have played in the tournament. He has scored 20 or more points in each game of the tournament has made more than half of his shots from the field in the last five games.
Both teams are beating opponents by an average of 13.1 points per game, but MSU Denver leads the RMAC in scoring defense at 60.7 points per game. UCCS held Adams State to its lowest field goal percentage of the season last night and held MSU Denver to its second-lowest shooting of the season when the teams met in Colorado Springs in December.
MSU Denver has RMAC Player of the Year Mitch McCarron, who is one of two Roadrunners averaging more than 20 points per game. The Roadrunners have won the last two RMAC Shootout championships.
UCCS will cover the admission price for UCCS students who present their ID card at tonight's game. There are no advance ticket sales and gates at the Auraria Event Center will open at 7 p.m. A live video stream will be available at Clyde's on the UCCS campus, and free live stats and audio will be provided. The video feed will be $9 through America One Sports.
