DENVER – Saturday's MSU Denver women's basketball game against winless South Dakota Mines is no layup.
 
Consider it a 3-pointer.
 
Appropriate, since South Dakota Mines is one of the more prolific 3-point shooting teams in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, averaging 23 attempts from beyond the arc per game while making 7.5 per contest.
 
The propensity to fire away can keep the Hardrockers in games. In dropping to 0-10 Thursday night, South Dakota Mines trailed by 13 points with nine minutes to go at Colorado Christian, yet made four 3s over the next eight minutes and eventually had the ball, trailing by one, for the final 30 seconds before committing a turnover.
 
"They're another extremely dangerous team," Haave said. "They're in games – they're right there. We're going to have to defend our home floor and understand that we've got to be ready for every single game and know what it takes."
 
Heading into Saturday's 2 p.m. game at the Auraria Event Center, MSU Denver is 5-4 overall and has dropped to 1-3 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference after being picked to finish third in the preseason.
 
The Roadrunners will be seeking to extend their best moments and minimize their lows against the Hardrockers (0-4 RMAC) in the final game before a 12-day holiday break.
 
"It's consistency over 40 minutes," Haave said. "You're always going to have ebbs and flows over the course of a game, but we need to even them out a little bit."
 
In a loss Tuesday at Colorado Christian, MSU Denver was outscored 13-0 to start the game before storming back to take the lead in a 16-2 second-quarter burst, but then was outscored 12-2 in a stretch spanning the third and fourth quarters and couldn't recover.
 
"I think sometimes we're overthinking things," Haave said. "We need to have the awareness of what's going on, but then still play the way we know how to play. It's easier said than done sometimes. You have to focus on what you need to be doing without overthinking it."
 
It's all part of the process for a Roadrunners team that would like to regain some momentum before the break.
 
"I don't want to overthink it myself," Haave said. "We've just got to get out of it and keep moving forward, keep fighting, keep pushing through, get better and grow. I've been telling them for a month now that every season is a journey, and this is our journey."
 
Allie Navarette leads the Roadrunners with 13.0 points and 7.9 rebounds per game, with fellow forwards Morgan Griego (10.7 points, 6.3 rebounds) and Jaela Richardson (10.0 points, 6.8 rebounds) also contributing to a strong inside game.
 
Haave is hoping to see that unit cut down on turnovers while at the same time is hopeful that the team's perimeter scorers will get on track.
 
There are plenty of positive signs, particularly on defense where MSU Denver ranks seventh in Division II in defensive rebounds per game (31.1), 11^th in field goal percentage defense (32.6), 54^th in 3-point percentage defense (25.6) and 61^st in scoring defense (58.5).
 
Haave said the team bounced back well in its first practice since Tuesday's loss.
 
"They're a little frustrated, a little disappointed," Haave said. "But we had a good film session and then we had a really good practice."