The University of Charleston and West Virginia State men's basketball teams both enter Thursday's 7:30 p.m. game needing something to go their way.
Both teams enter the contest at UC's new Wehrle Athletic Arena riding six-game losing streaks, and both are trying to regain momentum after hitting a rough snag early in Mountain East Conference play.
"We have to be better at the intangible things, and if we can get that better we'll be on our way to fixing our other problems," UC coach Dwaine Osborne said. "This is unchartered waters for us because we haven't lost more than three games in a row since I've been here. My message has been to just do the fundamental things well and that will be a huge part of us moving in the right direction."
The Golden Eagles (9-7, 3-7 MEC) and Yellow Jackets (5-11, 2-8 MEC) have gone through a stretch that would be difficult for any team to manage - facing six of the top seven teams in the MEC, including stretches where they played No. 2 Fairmont State, No. 4 West Liberty and No. 8 Wheeling Jesuit over the span of a week.
But it's still been a tough feeling to stomach for the teams.
For West Virginia State, a group that is full of several underclassmen and newcomers, it's a stretch that coach Bryan Poore said will show his team's toughness as it looks to keep moving forward and put what has happened behind it.
"They're kids. All of us want to win, you want to feel that feeling," Poore said. "It's tough right now. I've told them that we just have to grind it out and move on to the next day."
One thing Osborne has preached about his team since the preseason has been the importance of his upperclassmen to step up in times like this. When things get difficult and the team is struggling, it helps to have guys like seniors Elliott Cole and Justin Coleman leading the way.
He has continued to lean on them to provide the right type of leadership as the Golden Eagles look to get out of the hole they're in.
"We really are going to go as our seniors go," Osborne said. "If they are doing what they're supposed to do - playing hard, being good leaders, making good decisions - we can be a pretty good team."
Cole is fifth in the league in scoring, averaging 19.3 points per game, and will get the chance to go up against West Virginia State guard Ernest Jenkins. Jenkins leads all MEC freshmen with 17.5 points per game.
While Jenkins and the WVSU backcourt will give Charleston all it can handle, one of the biggest tests to see who will come away with the win may come in the frontcourt, where UC's Coleman and Jonathan Tshibuy will go up against players like Terrance Jenkins and Dequan Doyle and a West Virginia State squad that is one of the conference's best rebounding teams.
Charleston comes into the game second in the league in both defensive rebounding and rebound margin, while State is the MEC's top offensive rebounding team - 14.5 per game - and is fourth overall in rebounds per game.
"They're a very good rebounding team and they do a really good job of getting to the glass," Osborne said. "That's going to be a huge thing for us to try to do a good job of if we want to get the outcome we want."
Thursday's game follows a matchup between the women's teams. The UC (5-11, 4-6 MEC) and West Virginia State (8-8, 6-4 MEC) women's squads both want to head back in the right direction, too. West Virginia State's women snapped a three-game losing streak Monday with a win over West Virginia Wesleyan. Charleston's women have lost two in a row and seven of their last eight.
"The thing with basketball that makes it somewhat easier is that you don't have to wait a whole week to play another game," Poore said. "We have another opportunity. You move on from a tough game, you practice and you play again. You don't have time to hang your head, you just have to get back up and get after it."
Contact Michael Carvelli at 304-348-4810 or michael.carvelli@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @carvelli3.