DENVER – There are 10 RMAC men's basketball teams that have won at least five league games so far this season.
 
Of the five who haven't, MSU Denver has had the opportunity to play just two, winning against both New Mexico Highlands and Westminster.
 
The Roadrunners (11-6 overall, 5-6 RMAC) will play a team from the lower third of the standings again Saturday, when Western Colorado (6-10, 3-7) comes to the Auraria Event Center for a 6 p.m. game that will be televised by Local 3.
 
Western Colorado, though, is on a two-game winning streak and is just two games out of being a top-five team.
 
"They've just won two games, they have a new coach and a new system, they play hard, they're well-coached and they run good stuff," MSU Denver coach Dan Ficke said. "This game is about our maturity, and understanding that they are going to come in here and not lay down. If you take any team in this league lightly, you're going to get beat. We have to treat this game just like we've treated Colorado School of Mines and Colorado Mesa."
 
MSU Denver's league losses have included two to Mines, one to Mesa, one to 5-5 Black Hills State on the road, a tough one at home to 5-7 UCCS and another on the road to 5-6 CSU Pueblo when both star forwards Caleb McGill and Mario Lacy, Jr., were unable to play.
 
With 11-0 Mesa, 11-1 Mines and 10-1 Fort Lewis leading the way, it appears everyone else is now in a race for fourth place in the RMAC. Currently that spot is held down by 6-5 Chadron State.
 
"Obviously one of our goals that we set was to win the regular season championship, but that's probably out of reach barring those three teams all melting down," Ficke said. "But another one of our goals was to be in position to host a first-round (RMAC) tournament game (by finishing in the top four). That's just beyond us right now, but we're in the mix to do it if we stay focused on each game.
 
"We can't put the cart before the horse and start worrying about seeding too much, though. We have to handle our business, and help ourselves come to our own rescue. I like where we're at. Other than the second half of the UCCS game, we've played pretty well since the Christmas break."
 
While McGill (15.0 points, 5.4 rebounds) and Lacy (10.8 points, 8.9 rebounds) have given the Roadrunners consistent production, another frontcourt star is emerging in Marzouq Ibn Abdur-Razaaq. The 6-foot-6 freshman is averaging 8.9 points while shooting 60.6 percent from the field – and he leads all RMAC players in league games at 67.1 percent.
 
Those numbers have been bolstered as he's made 20 straight field goals over the past three games for what is believed to be a program record (Laolu Oke made 16 in a row during a stretch of the 2021-22 season). The Division II record for consecutive made field goals is 28, set by Don McAllister of Hartwick (N.Y.) over six games in 1980 and tied by Lance Berwald of North Dakota State during three games in 1984.
 
Ironically, no one has come closer to breaking the record than Lacy, who made 27 straight over five games during the 2021-22 season while playing for Ficke at Belmont Abbey (N.C.). Lacy also had another streak of 23 straight and still another of 17 that season.
 
"Like Mario, he plays to his strengths and takes the right shots," Ficke said. "You don't see Marzouq forced outside of what he can do. He shoots turnarounds and one-foot stepbacks, but those are part of his game – he works on them, and they are in his wheelhouse.
 
"We try to put him in the right spots, but he also does a great job of getting to his spots, too. He has a very mature game for a freshman."