DENVER – Mikylah Espinosa hits her second game-winner in two games to lift MSU Denver to the 69-68 win over UC-Colorado Springs. 
 
"I feel good," Espinosa exclaimed after the game. " We got two "W's" back to back and it feels really good. I feel like we haven't gotten a sweep like that in a long time, and I'm really happy about it."

The junior guard hit the go-ahead bucket against Colorado Christian last Thursday night to capture their first home win on the season. Then she hit the game-winner tonight to give the team their first two-game winning streak on the year. Espinosa scored 33 points in the game, coming up just one-point shy of her career-high. 
 
"I'm ready for bed after these two wins," Espinosa said jokingly. "You know I put a lot of trust in my teammates, they all showed up tonight, we all played as a team, I'm really happy with the end result." 
 
The Roadrunners got off to a slow start and fell behind by as many as 15 points in the first half and were down by 11 at the break. But the defense stepped up in a big way in that third quarter holding UCCS to just 2-of-13 from the field, which allowed the home team to claw their way back to within five heading into the fourth quarter. 
 
"We use our defensive press when we need to catch up and we tried to get the ball back as many times as we could," Espinosa said, as the team forced eight third-quarter turnovers. 
 
Amanda Byrnes was huge on the defensive side of things blocking two shots and just her mere presence made a difference in slowing down the Mountain Lions offense. 
 
"It was important to me to come off the bench to bring a lot of energy," Byrnes said. "I had fresh legs, I want to be that six-man, you know, the girls are tired, I provide what I can for them and get them going." 
 
Espinosa hit a three-pointer in the fourth quarter to give her team their first lead since the early stages of the first quarter when it was 6-4. It was a back-and-forth affair in the final frame between these two squads.
 
Espinosa hit a key basket scoring on the baseline with a reverse layup to give her team a 67-66 point lead with 31 seconds remaining. But UCCS responded with Amyah Moore Allen, who found a wide-open lane on the other end and finished with an easy layup to put the Mountain Lions right back up by one. Moore Allen led her squad with a team-high 25 points. 
 
After a timeout, Espinosa passed the ball to Mariana Silva-Pereira on the wing, she pumped faked a defender out of her sneakers and took two dribbles in to take a long two-point shot. Another defender came out to defend her and Silva-Pereira found Espinosa on the baseline. The guard then made a fantastic euro-step move into the paint and found an open layup with 1.5 ticks on the clock. UCCS brought the ball to half court to try and answer back, but the in-bound pass was tipped away by Silva-Pereira and the Roadrunners come away with the one-point win. 
 
"It feels fantastic," Byrnes said. "You know we just wanted to follow up with our performance on Thursday and I think we did just that. It was a slow start but we really brought it back and I think that was just really important to us." 
 
The win improved the Roadrunners record to 5-11 overall with a 4-4 overall record in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. The Mountain Lions fall to 8-7 overall and also stand at 4-4 in the conference. The win moves MSU Denver to a seventh-place tie and in a playoff spot.