Metro seeks playoff spot

Eric Lansing
lansing@mscd.edu

The fight for the postseason continues for Metro women’s basketball team.

The Roadrunners find themselves right in the mix for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference playoffs after splitting their home games in a win vs. Chadron State Feb. 6 and a loss vs. Nebraska Kearney at the Auraria Events Center.

Before the weekend set, head coach Linda Lappe and her team were tied with three other teams for fifth spot in RMAC standings. The top eight teams earn the right to play in the RMAC Shootout in the first week of March.

In their first match against the Eagles of Chadron State, the fans and the teams witnessed one of the top individual performances of the year.

Metro forward Megan Sinclair dropped in a career-high 28 points on the visiting Eagles hitting 12 of her 20 shots, including 4-of-4 from the charity stripe.

“The shots were open,” Sinclair said. “I made few and I just kept on shooting and it was a good night.”

The 5-foot-7-inch senior carried her team on her shoulders the entire game leading the Roadrunners to the important 75-62 victory.

“This was make or break for us,” Sinclair said. “I said to the girls before the game that this was a non-negotiable win.”

On a night when Metro’s second leading scorer Rae Bean spent a good portion of the game on the bench with foul trouble, Sinclair rose to the occasion.

Chadron State came ready to play keeping pace with the ’Runners early in the first half. Led by guard Sunni Busch, a two-time RMAC Player of the Week, the Eagles actually shot their way to a seven-point lead with 8:48 left in the first half.

But Bean scored four straight points spurring a 18-4 run to send Metro in halftime with a seven-point lead.

The first half was impressive for Sinclair, who scored 10 points, but the second was even better. The forward piled up 18 points keeping the visiting team at bay. She was also a force on the defensive end coming up with seven steals and five rebounds.

“I told her I liked her defense more than I liked her offense,” Metro head coach Linda Lappe said on Sinclair’s fantastic night. “She did a great job of just bringing the overall intensity; she rebounded, she played defense, she hit her open shots, she was aggressive and just did an all around very nice job.”

Busch had a solid night for her team recording 19 points and 13 rebounds, her sixth double-double of the year.

The next night featured one of the top matchups of the year in the RMAC. Metro took on a Nebraska-Kearney team, who was riding a five-game win streak coming into the Events Center.
Last season, the ’Runners failed in three attempts to defeat the Lopers. The final try came in the RMAC playoffs, falling in the semifinals, which ended their season.

Kearney fought through two overtimes the night before in a win over Regis. But it was Metro who looked fatigued as the Lopers raced out to a 15-point lead in the first seven minutes of the game.

Kearney guard Jade Meads, who scored a season-high 33 points the previous night, had eight points in the early 21-6 lead.

But Sinclair helped her team claw back within six before the half.

But Kearney was the aggressor grabbing offensive rebounds and getting to the foul line 40 times connecting on 33 of them sending Metro to their six RMAC loss.

The one win and one loss weekend keeps Metro in the hunt for the playoffs. They currently sit fifth in the East Division and reside in seventh spot for the RMAC Shootout. Every passing weekend becomes much more important for the Roadrunners and this weekend they host the top team in the East Division, the Colorado School of Mines and Colorado Christian, the team sitting with the same 7-6 conference record.