DENVER – It wasn't a very merry holiday break for the MSU Denver men's basketball team.
 
And while the basketball new year hasn't always been happy, it has been hopeful.
 
The Roadrunners sprung a road upset in December but otherwise lost four times in the month (before Dec. 31 anyway), and three of those losses were by an average of 29 points.
 
But starting with the New Year's Eve game at Chadron State, the Roadrunners have won twice, lost two close games – including on the road at a strong UCCS – and lost two other games by 15 points, but those were much closer than the final score indicated.
 
That includes Tuesday's home loss to Nos. 5 and 9 Colorado School of Mines, when the Roadrunners had two chances to take the lead with just under eight minutes to go and still trailed by only five with five minutes to play.
 
That's the same Mines team that topped MSU Denver by 36 points to close out the semester.
 
"We're playing different," MSU Denver coach Dan Ficke said. "We gave (Mines) everything they could handle, and I think played them better than anyone since Black Hills State (17-1 Mines' only loss, on Dec. 10)."
 
At 6-11 overall and 3-8 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, MSU Denver opens the second half of league play Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Western Colorado (3-11, 1-9). Seven of MSU Denver's final 11 games are against teams with records of 6-5 or worse in RMAC play.
 
"I think we've got some games down the stretch that we can go win, if we keep our minds in the right place," Ficke said.
 
MSU Denver continues to be one of Division II's best at getting to the free throw line (the Roadrunners are 16^th with 23.2 attempts per game) and making them (they are 13^th with 17.1 made per game).
 
Wing Tyrei Randall (65 of 86, 75.6 percent) and forward Caleb McGill (61 of 76, 80.3 percent) are leading the parade to the charity stripe.
 
Now the Roadrunners would like to get a few more hoops from the field. They are shooting 44.2 percent from the field for the season and made just 18.2 percent (4 of 22) in the second half against Mines.
 
That MSU Denver hung close with Mines in spite of the poor shooting is a testament to the team's grit and defensive effort.
 
"Personally, I think we're a couple of possessions away from winning all these games," McGill said. "Just little mental errors can add up. There's just certain stretches of the game where it happens. We're definitely taking strides in the right direction, it's just attention to detail at this point."