DENVER – Back in December, MSU Denver was still flying high with a 7-1 record and national top-20 rankings when it traveled to Black Hills State for its first conference road game of the season.
Forty minutes later, the Roadrunners were battered and bruised after a 75-56 defeat, a loss that showed league play was going to be tough, despite having two wins over nationally-ranked teams under their belt.
They got some measure of revenge on Feb. 10 at home, beating the Yellow Jackets by a nearly identical 75-58.
Now, the Roadrunners will travel to Black Hills State again for a first-round game in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament, with tipoff Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Since Black Hills State was 14-8 in league play and the Roadrunners were 13-9, it's fair to say that the December result cost MSU Denver the chance at the fourth seed and having this game at home.
But that's OK with the fifth-seeded Roadrunners.
"It's fitting," MSU Denver coach Dane Ficke said. "Our regular season (league schedule) started there (basically), and now our postseason is going to start there. To me, and I told the guys this in the locker room (after Saturday's regular-season finale), that I'm excited about that.
"There's no better feeling as a team to go into someone else's house and potentially end their season and just to get a road win."
At 16-12 overall, Black Hills State likely has no other option to reach the NCAA Division II Tournament than to win the RMAC Tournament and get the league's automatic bid.
MSU Denver though, at 19-9, is on the bubble to receive one of the eight spots in the regional field. A win would certainly get the Roadrunners closer to making the NCAAs for the first time since 2015. A loss wouldn't necessarily end MSU Denver's season, but it might.
Nothing is guaranteed.
"We know that to win this league, you've got to go through the top teams in the league, and Black Hills is still one of them," Ficke said. "They finished fourth (in the RMAC), they've been to the Final Four the last two years, and they're a great program. Who would you rather play to get to where you want to go than a team like that?
"This is a tough league, and you're battle-tested when you come through it. I'm excited about the opportunity to go up there – other than the six-hour bus ride Monday morning. For us, it's all about a one-game season now."
The challenge is to avoid looking too far ahead and worrying about anything other than the day at hand.
"First things first, we want to win the RMAC Championship," guard
Luke Jones said. "To do that takes all-out effort. It's a one-game season at this point. So every game we play, you can bet everything in your bank account that we're going to give an all-out effort."
The winner of the MSU Denver-Black Hills State game advances to a Friday semifinal against the winner of Tuesday's Colorado Mesa-Chadron State game.
Colorado Mesa, which won the league title and thus the tournament's No. 1 seed, will host the semifinals and Saturday's final if it wins Tuesday. Otherwise, the semifinals and final will be hosted by the highest seed remaining after Tuesday.
"We're prepared for this moment," forward Mario Lacy, Jr., said. "Everything we've got to do, we already know. We've just got to lock in mentally and get the job done."
