DENVER – Fourteen down, 14 to go.
 
The MSU Denver men's basketball team is halfway through the regular season, happy with its 10-4 overall record and probably a bit frustrated by its 4-4 mark in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play.
 
"We've gone through a ton of adversity with injuries and illness," MSU Denver coach Dan Ficke said. "But all of this is preparing us for our ultimate goals. Last weekend was difficult, but it was a great opportunity for our young guys to step up.
 
"I've said since we've started here that our goal is always to be playing our best basketball during the second half of the season, and that's still the goal now."
 
MSU Denver starts the second half of the season with a difficult three-games-in-five-days mission that includes playing a red-hot team, the last team to beat that hot team and then the league's hottest team.
 
The Roadrunners play host to UCCS in a 7 p.m. game Friday, then play host to Regis in a game televised on Local 3 at 6 p.m. Saturday to wrap up Alumni Weekend, before traveling to play at Colorado School of Mines on Tuesday at 7:30.
 
UCCS (8-8 overall, 4-6 RMAC) has won three straight, including last Friday's impressive 79-70 win over nationally-ranked Fort Lewis. Before getting hot, UCCS had also lost two RMAC games by two points, another by four and two others by seven and eight, respectively.
 
The Mountain Lions feature one of the RMAC's top freshmen in guard Xavier Martinez (13.4 points per game).
 
"UCCS is playing extremely well right now and two things that they do well are things that have bothered us all year – they shoot the 3 and the rebound the heck out of it on the offensive glass," Ficke said. "They also play a mix of man-to-man and zone, and we haven't seen much zone this year, so that will be a different prep for us."
 
Regis (8-7, 5-4), which nearly knocked off Fort Lewis as well last weekend, beat UCCS 88-62 back on Jan. 2. Sophomore guard Chase Mayo Harmon has gone from scoring 3.9 points per game last year to 16.2 this season.
 
"They play with pace and have a lot of guys capable of making shots," Ficke said. "They use full-court pressure to speed you up – we like to play fast, but we don't want to get crazy. It's two games against teams with contrasting styles – UCCS wants to pound it inside, Regis wants to spread you out, drive it and shoot 3s."
 
And then comes Mines (14-3, 8-1), which is on a league-best 10-game winning streak, including a 78-67 win over the Roadrunners on Dec. 13.
 
"Obviously by the numbers they are playing the best of the three teams right now, and that just goes to show you that there are no easy nights in this league," Ficke said. "We don't think we gave them our best shot when we played them at home, and now we're going to try to steal one on the road."
 
MSU Denver didn't have an easy time last weekend playing without 6-foot-8 forwards Caleb McGill and Mario Lacy, Jr., who combine to average 26.8 points and 14.3 rebounds per game. The Roadrunners, with a seven-man rotation, carved out a nice win at New Mexico Highlands but ran out of steam in the final 10 minutes of a loss at CSU Pueblo.
 
Not only were McGill and Lacy out Saturday, but star guard Brayden Maldonado had a tough-luck shooting night, making only 3 of 18 from the field despite getting quality looks and putting them on target – nothing seemed to fall.
 
"Brayden was 0 for 7 from 3, and I think if two of them had gone in, that becomes a one-possession game going into the last four minutes," Ficke said.