The men and women of DU basketball both walked into the Summit League conference tournament as the seven-seed on Saturday in Sioux Falls, S.D. Both teams were expected to lose, painted as the underdogs against the brackets’ two-seeds in North Dakota State University on the women’s side and University of Missouri at Kansas City for the men.
The Crimson and Gold have historically been very quiet at Summit League tournaments. Before Saturday, neither team had won a game in over five years. The men last won versus Oral Roberts in 2018, while the women haven’t tasted victory since their semifinals triumph over South Dakota in 2014.
This tournament weekend saw one Denver team stay quiet, while the other continued to make noise in their most successful season in years.
The first DU game of the day saw the 8-21 women of Denver take on the 19-10 NDSU Bison. As one of the most lopsided matchups on either end of the bracket, the Crimson and Gold predictably fell to NDSU by a final score of 60-72.
The Crimson and Gold ran out of the gate with a purpose, taking a 7-4 lead in the first three minutes of the game. Sophomore guard Angelina Robles’ shifty handles and good finishing ability gave Denver hope early, but the team’s three-point stats early (1-4) gave them reason to sweat.
It hasn’t been uncommon this season for the Crimson and Gold to put up as many threes as possible as an offensive strategy. However, that strategy requires at least the occasional shot to fall. Unfortunately for Denver, the threes were raining everywhere—the rim, the backboard, the floor—everywhere but the net.
Meanwhile, NDSU’s Abbie Draper was carving up the Denver defense in the paint. She cut under the basket with fluid ease, scoring 12 first-half points and not missing a single field goal until the 1 minute 37 second mark of the second quarter. Denver knew they would have to turn up the defensive intensity for a chance at a victory.
Head coach Doshia Woods confronted her team’s 11-point halftime deficit with one of the most aggressive strategies in basketball: the full-court press. The Crimson and Gold made NDSU fight for every inch of the court starting in the third quarter, and a flashy block by graduate student forward Makayla Minett indicated the start of what could be a lifeline for DU.
The Bison turned the ball over four times in the first seven minutes of the quarter. With visions of flashy comebacks in her eyes, sophomore guard Jordan Jones continued her impressive season with seven strong third-quarter points to bring the Crimson and Gold within four. Unfortunately, a late run led by NDSU’s Heaven Hamling brought the lead back up to 11.
The Crimson and Gold would fail to score again until senior guard Emily Counsel’s three-pointer cut the deficit to 12 with seven minutes to play in the game. Denver halfheartedly continued their full-court press, and another swat by Minett garnered some scattered cheers, but frustration mounted as their defeat became inevitable.
After the final whistle sounded, the Crimson and Gold entered their final handshake line of the season carrying disappointment and a 12-point loss. A tearful Minett and her teammates quickly filed away from the court, knowing that she, along with Counsel, junior guard Jocelyn Wyatt and grad student guard Lauren With, had just played their final game in the Crimson and Gold.
Jones impressed for Denver, ending the night with 16 points and four assists. Three of her teammates also scored in the double digits in Robles, Counsel and sophomore guard Emma Smith. However, it was NDSU’s snappy passing that set up the unstoppable double threat of Draper and Hamling, the latter of which scored 25 in the best performance of her season.
Just a few hours after Denver basketball suffered a heartbreaking, but all-too-common, defeat, it was the men’s turn to chase an upset. With the notable parity coating the men’s side of the Summit League, this matchup was much closer than the women’s: the 15-16 Crimson and Gold versus the 16-15 UMKC Roos.
Denver had a myriad of reasons to worry. With only one win in their last five games and a concerning ankle injury haunting the nation’s leading scorer in fifth-year guard Tommy Bruner, DU might have been staring the end of their season dead in the face.
The first half seemed to validate these fears. Three early back-to-back three-pointers from UMKC’s Cameron Faas put Denver in a hole that they struggled to climb out of. DU was having significant trouble finding second chances, and a gaudy 1-5 from the free throw line made it clear that the Crimson and Gold had a lot of work to do.
Bruner’s inability to move laterally and unwillingness to shoot the ball were only some of the most obvious of his injury symptoms—shockingly, he only took one shot all half and scored zero points. Although he recorded four assists, none of his teammates scored more than five points in the half.
A 10-point run to end the half gave the Roos a 33-21 lead going into the locker room. If anything, it seemed as if the Crimson and Gold were hanging on for dear life. A five-minute stretch of no scoring from either team had limited the damage, but someone had to step up for Denver in the second half.
Who else would do it but the NCAA men’s leading scorer? Bruner must have flipped some sort of switch in the locker room because he commanded an entirely different game in the second half. Although it was clear that he was still battling his injured ankle, Bruner scored seven points of his own before UMKC managed to get on the board.
Supporting fire from shifty freshman guard DeAndre Craig and graduate student guard Jaxon Brenchley helped the Crimson and Gold inch closer. Against all odds, Denver transformed a once 12-point deficit into a one-point lead after Brenchley’s corner three fell with 12 minutes to play in the game.
It was a neck-and-neck race from there on out. Fans were treated to five lead changes in a tight race to the finish line. Anyone could win, and that’s what makes March college basketball so fun to watch.
This March Madness-esque drama marked an end to the game. With less than 10 seconds to play and down by two, Craig drove to the basket and kicked it out to senior guard Isaiah Addo-Ankrah, who launched a contested three over a frantic UMKC defender. It found twine and Denver’s bench went ballistic.
DU held a one-point lead with five seconds to play. After a full-court press forced UMKC’s last timeout, it was do-or-die time.
Sophomore forward Isaiah Carr, Denver’s formidable 7’0” shot blocker, checked in with hopes of some last-second heroics. But as the shot went up, it was junior forward Pedro Lopez-Sanvicente who got all ball and sealed the game for Denver.
Denver’s bench emptied, celebrating the program’s first tournament win in five seasons. They had slain the two-seed Roos in one of their most electric victories of the year, downing UMKC 61-60. The grinning women’s team, supporting their counterparts after their earlier loss, dapped up the men as the celebrations dispersed.
Brenchley’s 15 points and Craig’s 13 represented Denver’s most reliable scoring, but it was Bruner’s 16-point second half after a scoreless first that drove the comeback. Head coach Jeff Wulbrun praised his star scorer’s impressive feat after the game.
“Tommy didn’t practice one minute this week, and he came out here and really got it going in the second half,” Wulbrun said during the broadcast. “I’m proud of our defense, I’m proud of the resiliency we showed…really proud of our guys.”
Wulbrun will have to prepare his team for the next leg of the Summit League tournament. DU is set to play Omaha in the semifinals on Monday, March 11, who also upset their opponent with a one-point victory.
“You enjoy the moment tonight, it’s been a long season and the guys killed it. And that’s what you ask them to do, they gave it everything they had and we’ll enjoy it tonight and start preparation tomorrow,” Wulbrun said.
