After a 0-2 start in the Northeast Conference, Mount St. Mary's has righted the ship with home wins against Central Connecticut State on Thursday and St. Francis Brooklyn on Saturday to improve to .500 in the league.
That's all well and good, but coach Jamion Christian is eager to see how the Mountaineers (6-9) handle a little run of success heading into Thursday night's game at Fairleigh Dickinson (7-8, 2-2 NEC).
"We've had two good games against two very solid teams," Christian said Wednesday. "The big thing for us now is, how do we handle a two-game bit of success? Will we come out against Fairleigh Dickinson and be able to handle it with the maturity that we need to keep making progress in league play?"
The modest winning streak is Mount St. Mary's longest of the season, but it was a welcome sight for the reigning NEC tournament champion. A 25-point loss at Robert Morris in the league opener on Jan. 3 followed by a stunning 85-83 double-overtime loss at Wagner on Jan. 5, could have demoralized the team, but Christian said he didn't worry too much about the start.
"I usually don't base our success on whether or not we lose," he said. "I know I'm often judged on that, but I just judge it on how well did we compete and did we play together and how did we respond to adversity. We did that in the Wagner game. We didn't make the right plays at the end, and we made some mistakes – missed some free throws, turnovers, things of that nature, but things that you can correct and work on every single day. ... What that experience has been able to do for us is practice better and practice with more focus."
Extending the winning streak to three will require the Mountaineers to exorcise some road demons. Away from Knott Arena in Emmitsburg, they have averaged 7.9 points and 6.5 field-goal percent fewer than at home. Christian said the most important number to him is the 13.9 turnovers the team has averaged on the road compared to 10.8 giveaways at home.
"We've done a great job of rebounding the basketball, and I think if we take care of the basketball, it will help create more offense for us," he said. "We turned it over 19 times against Robert Morris and 22 times against Wagner. It's going to be hard to win any games like that. In our home games, we've turned it over four and 13 [times against Central Connecticut and St. Francis Brooklyn, respectively]. That's a dramatic drop-off and that just shows immaturity.
"So we're going to go in here against FDU, which is really good defensively in terms of making you turn it over, and tell our guys to take care of the basketball, get a shot every time down the floor, be really simple with our execution.' The teams that win on the road execute their offensive and defensive game plans. We've got to be able to do that, and we've got to be able to do that way better than we have thus far. But I think we're starting to get to the point in the season where I'm feeling really confident that we can go out there and do that now."