DENVER – More than half of the MSU Denver men's basketball team's remaining home games will be played over the next two weekends.
 
So, even though it's still only mid-January, it's getting late in the season pretty early.
 
"This is really our last stretch of home games," Metropolitan State University of Denver men's basketball coach Michael Bahl said. "Four (at home) in a row and we've got 13 (total) games left. Four of our seven home games are in the next two weeks. So this is a big stretch in our season where we can maybe make up some ground for some of the games we've lost the last couple of weeks."
 
The Roadrunners (6-7 overall, 4-5 and tied for eighth in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) were riding high with a five-game winning streak before losing their last home game Jan. 5 against Adams State. Then, last weekend, the losing streak was extended to three games on a trip to Utah where they fell at Dixie State and Westminster.
 
MSU Denver is looking to get back on track in Friday's 7:30 p.m. home game against Colorado State University-Pueblo (5-10, 3-6 and tied for 12^th) and Saturday's 7 p.m. contest with New Mexico Highlands (12-3, 7-2 and tied for second). Both games are at the venerable Auraria Event Center, where the Roadrunners had won five straight before the Adams State loss.
 
"You've always got to take care of business at home," Bahl said. "Obviously we've got to be better on the road, but it starts at home. We've got opportunities over the next couple of weeks, and it starts Friday night to see if we can get back on track and start playing some better basketball."
 
MSU Denver, still the program with the best all-time winning percentage in the history of Division II basketball, is seeking to live up to the program's high standards. A talented but nearly all new roster has had its highs and lows throughout the season.
 
The Roadrunners have lost four games by six points or less. They have led by at least six points in each of their last three losses, surrendering double-digit leads in two of them, and have led by at least six points in five of their losses.
 
"I think spirits are high," said Bahl, the only member of the program who has won an RMAC championship or played in the NCAA tournament. "I think they understand that while we have some veteran guys, who don't have a guy who has been in the NCAA tournament. We don't have a guy on our roster who has won the RMAC tournament or the regular season title. So we're starting from ground zero in terms of trying to build that tradition and culture. What's happened in the past is in the past. It's being built on their backs now. Guys are starting to understand that it's a fight every night. Teams aren't going to just lay down for us."
 
CSU-Pueblo started league play 0-4 but has won three of its last five games, included a road win at Dixie State, which beat MSU Denver in the same location 69-38 last weekend. Donovan Oldham is a 6-foot-4 junior averaging 15.4 points per game, and 6-8 junior Jason Anderson is a former Air Force transfer who averages 11.4 points and 5.8 rebounds. Anderson was second-team All-RMAC last year when he averaged 14.5 and 6.6.
 
The ThunderWolves are fifth in the league in field-goal percentage (46.7), sixth in 3-point percentage (37.8) and third with an average of 9.3 made 3s per game.
 
"They played a really tough schedule, played a lot of tough teams in our region on the road," Bahl said. "We've got our work cut out for us. They return a lot of guys who have been there before. They're a veteran team and the scary thing is they shoot the ball well across the board. One of the biggest keys is to, as simple as it sounds, get them to miss some shots. We've got to do a better job of making the other team miss. They're going to make some, but we can't give them easy, uncontested shots. We've got to make them work for every shot they get."
 
Meanwhile Highlands has far exceeded its preseason projections (the Cowboys were picked to finish 10^th, after going 15-13 and 10-12 last year) on the strength of a high-powered scoring duo of Division I transfers.
 
Raquan Mitchell, a 6-3 guard, averaged 7.0 points and 23.1 minutes per game – he played in all 30 games and started nine times – last season at Colorado State. Gerad Davis, a 6-4 guard, averaged 7.0 points in nine games last year at Northern Colorado. This season, they rank 2-3 in the league in scoring with averages of 20.9 and 20.8 points per game, respectively.
 
Mitchell started his college career at Memphis, then played one season in junior college before going to Colorado State. He leads the league with an average of 4.0 3s per game while connecting on 43.4 percent (56 of 129) from long range.
 
Davis, who attended two different junior colleges before his season at Northern Colorado, is second in the league in steals with 2.1 per game.
 
But it isn't just a two-man show.
 
Nnamdi Okoro is a 6-7 senior who leads the league in rebounding (8.4) and is second in blocked shots (1.6). Jordan Jones is a 6-6 senior who averages 14.4 points while making 2.1 3s per game.
 
Davis and Jones are both 85.0-percent free throw shooters. Davis, Desmond Carpenter, Mitchell and Jones rank second through fifth in the league in steals.
 
The Cowboys average a league-high 89.4 points per game and also lead the league with 11.1 made 3s per game, ranking 10^th and 19^th in NCAA Division II in those categories. They are 18^th nationally in steals (9.6) and fourth in turnover margin (+6.5).
 
"They have a ton of firepower," Bahl said. "They want to play a faster style. They want to get up and down. They have a bunch of guys who can score at multiple levels. It's going to come down to whether we can do what we want to do. Can we take care of the ball, and can we get the shots that we want? They're a good team, but I think we're a pretty good team, too."