DENVER – It took different people different amounts of time to understand that the 2010-11 MSU Denver women's basketball team was something special.
 
But one thing was clear from the beginning.
 
"No one hated to lose more than we hated to lose," post player Cassondra Bratton said. "And once we started winning, we realized that other girls on other teams didn't hate to lose as much as we did."
 
That MSU Denver team rarely lost in fact, in a spectacular 30-3 season that took the program further than it had ever been before or has been since – to a regional championship, a trip to the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals, and just seconds away from a trip to the national semifinals.
 
That team will be honored Saturday as it is inducted into the MSU Denver Athletics Hall of Fame, along with men's basketball legends Luke Kendall, Mitch McCarron and Mark Worthington and former Roadrunners assistant and head coach Derrick Clark.
 
The ceremony will take place at the Tivoli Turnhalle on the MSU Denver campus. Tickets are $50 for adults and $25 for kids 12 and under. The evening starts with a 6 p.m. social, followed by dinner at 7 p.m.

Tanya Haave was the Roadrunners' first-year head coach back in 2010-11 and helped take the team to the next level. It started after Bratton slipped a note under her office door.
 
"I don't think anyone expected anything like what we did going into the season, but it was kind of the perfect storm," Haave said. "That team had had some success and they knew the conference. And then Cassondra left me a note and asked if she could come back and play. That was kind of the missing piece."
 
After two years away from basketball to raise her child, Bratton returned to the MSU Denver program and averaged team bests of 12.7 points and 8.2 rebounds.
 
"She was the mother who kept everyone in line, and everyone had so much respect for her and what she was doing," Haave said. "When she spoke, everyone was listening, but she always spoke in a way that was positive."
 
But it was far from a one person team.
 
How deep was this team? Well, while starting 7-0, six different players led the team in scoring.
 
"We were solid at every position," said point guard Jasmine Cervantes, who averaged 10.1 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists. "And it helped that we had the experience of playing together, so when we had the additional players come in, it just fit – especially with Coach Haave coming in.
 
"It didn't matter if someone was off one night, because someone else was going to pick us up. From that end, we were unstoppable, because we put in the work offensively and defensively. That's hard to beat."
 
Belief was gaining momentum.
 
"Alyssa (Benson) would always say, 'We're the best team in the world,' and we were still only 8-0 or 10-0," Bratton said. "And I remember conversations manifesting throughout the year about 'no plans for spring break guys. We're going to be in St. Joseph.'"
 
That's St. Joseph, as in Missouri, the site of the 2011 national championships, where Division II's eight regional champions would convene.
 
The Roadrunners won their first 15 games of the season, including an 11-0 start to league play that put them at No. 14 in the Division II national coaches' poll.
 
Then came a matchup at fifth-ranked Fort Lewis and a stunning 73-47 defeat.
 
"I remember sitting next to (Bratton) at the end of the game – which rarely happened – and looking at the scoreboard and saying, 'This isn't happening again,'" Cervantes said. "And we had another hard game the next day, but we recovered."
 
Recovered indeed.
 
In another huge game that following night, at Adams State, it came down to the closing seconds.
 
"I drew up a play for Jazz, and she didn't do a damn thing I asked," Haave said, laughing. "But she drove to the basket and scored."
 
Cervantes' game-winner made it 54-53 with less than one second to play.
 
Another long winning streak ensued.
 
"Everybody just bought into what that role was for them, and it was just beautiful," Bratton said. "I don't know how often that happens. That made it so special."
 
MSU Denver closed the regular season with 10 straight wins to capture the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's regular-season title at 21-1.
 
The players credited Haave, Haave credits the players.
 
"Her background speaks volumes, obviously, with everything she accomplished in her career," Cervantes said of Haave, an All-American at Tennessee while playing for the legendary Pat Summitt. "She was just easy to talk to. She was the missing link we needed to get everyone on the same page. We respected her enough to take her input and make changes immediately. We didn't want to make her mad, right? She just knew how to talk to us, and it worked for all of us."
 
Said Bratton: "It's because she's a player's coach. When you compete at a certain level – and she's competed at a level that none of us could've imagined competing at – you have a huge respect for the players' struggle, especially as a woman. Her having gone through it, she would always ask, 'How are your bodies feeling? How are you doing today?' Certain small things, things that coaches overlook because they just want to get results. She would always take time to see what we thought about a game, or a play, or each other. She'd make sure that everything was smooth."
 
Benson averaged 8.7 points while shooting an outstanding 37.3 percent from 3-point range (59 of 158). Defensive demons Brandi and Kristin Valencia averaged 6.8 points and 6.3 points, respectively. Emily Wood averaged 6.2 and Tawny Drexler chipped in 5.5. Candice Kohn (4.7) was the eighth player to appear in at least 32 games.
 
And the contributions of Amy Andrus, Sullivan Ziegler, Chelsea Libonati and Corrissa Gillan aren't overlooked, either.
 
"We had players who weren't starting (Benson, Brandi Valencia and Kohn started a combined four games) who could've easily complained, but they didn't," Haave said. "They accepted their roles and embraced them, and all that mattered was the good of the team. It was remarkable how well that team did with that, and those are the teams that end up winning.
 
"We all trusted each other – the coaches trusted the players, the players trusted the coaches, and the players trusted the other players. This was a player-led team. We were just guiding them. They took it and ran with it."
 
Having extended their winning streak to 12 games, including a 48-37 overtime victory against Adams State to reach the RMAC Tournament championship, No. 10 MSU Denver was knocked off by No. 6 Fort Lewis in the tournament final.
 
But the Roadrunners rolled through the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament's Central Regional on Fort Lewis' home floor, then played Adams State with a trip to the national quarterfinals on the line in the regional final.
 
MSU Denver trailed 20-6 after nine minutes.
 
"For whatever reason, we were just off rhythm that game, and they had a good crowd," Cervantes said. "We just couldn't get things to click. We had to keep battling. And that's a great thing about this team ... we never gave up. Never."
 
Said Haave: "We just chipped away at them the rest of the game. It was just a matter-of-fact team that was unassuming, would grind things out, compete and work hard."
 
Adams State scored just 16 points in the final 30 minutes in a 27-point turnaround, as MSU Denver won 49-36.
 
"They had a great shooter, Vera Jo Bustos, and Candice Kohn, Alyssa Benson and Emily Wood took turns chasing her around and they wouldn't let her get an open shot," Haave said. "When she caught the ball, we wanted to be right there. Every shot she took was guarded and forced."
 
Talk about embracing your role? Bustos was 3 for 18, including 1 of 9 from 3-point range.
 
In Division II, a regional title is much like reaching the Final Four in Division I.
 
"It was such a huge moment, but our work wasn't done yet," Cervantes said. "It was hard to enjoy that moment at the time. But looking back, it was extraordinary. It was incredible for all of us to experience that, and it was such a great group that we had, great coaching staff, and it was cool to see it all come together."
 
As the tournament trophies and accolades were being handed out, it became clear that Bratton – who averaged 17.7 points and 9.3 rebounds in three games – was about to be named the regional tournament's most valuable player.
 
"When you get to the point in your life where you've had so much adversity, the realization and the recognition feels good," said Bratton, emotional thinking about the moment 13 years later. "I know I couldn't have gotten there without all of them. There are no words. If the tears had words … it's just the appreciation for all the sacrifices by my parents, my team letting me play that year, all of everything. … That moment, knowing they were going to call my name, it was 'This is it. This is what all of the hard stuff has been for.'"
 
No one had made spring break plans, and the Roadrunners were off to St. Joseph, Mo., where they faced Shaw (N.C.). MSU Denver led by as many as nine in the first half, by as many as eight in the second half, and by four in the closing seconds.
 
But Shaw got a 3-pointer from a player who had been 1 for 16 from the field for the game, then drove the length of the floor after MSU Denver missed two free throws with six seconds left. Shaw's layup went through the hoop as the buzzer sounded, handing the Roadrunners a 46-45 defeat.
 
"When it's all over, it all hits you," Bratton said. "That game was business as usual. Sixteen seconds left and up by four … March Madness, you know? You just never know how it's going to land, and we just came up on the short end. We talk about it pretty often."
 
Said Haave: "We probably should've been in the Final Four. It was a disappointing loss. But we had dinner together and by the time we got back to the hotel it was, 'Wow, what an amazing season we had.' It just wasn't meant to be."