Oh, sure, the Colonials have regrouped rather well from their 0-2 start in Northeast Conference play.

They've manufactured a season-best six-game winning streak that's carried them into a three-way tie for first place with Bryant and Sacred Heart.

But so what?

"They don't give championships after eight games, so it doesn't really mean anything,'' RMU coach Andrew Toole noted.

And, just like streets during winter, the Colonials' remaining schedule is pitted with potholes.

Consider that this weekend they make the trip to Brooklyn, N.Y., to play St. Francis Brooklyn and LIU Brooklyn, two of eight NEC teams clumped together with records of 6-2, 5-3 or 4-4 as the league nears the midpoint.

Consider also that sophomore stalwart Lucky Jones took a nasty spill while trying to keep alive a rebound late in the Mount St. Mary's game last Saturday. Certainly his status for this weekend is a bit worrisome.

Ponder this also. The Colonials have road games remaining at Bryant, Sacred Heart, Central Connecticut State and Quinnipiac.

And then there's this: The YNK Factor. As in, You Never Know.

"The way this league looks right now, it's going to be chaos over the last 10 games,'' Toole said. "You're going to look at scores, you're going to look at situations, and you're going to see some nights where things go the way you thought and other nights where they probably go the exact opposite. It's going to be extremely interesting.''

For example, take last Saturday night's game against Mount St. Mary's.

The Colonials led, 60-42, with 8:15 left. They led, 66-51, with 4:46 left. And they led, 71-55, with 2:16 left.

And yet the Mountaineers made it a four-point game, 72-68, with 24 seconds left.

One just never knows.

It wasn't until junior guard Karvel Anderson made two free throws and Russell Johnson made two more that the Colonials could breathe easily while finishing their 76-68 win.

"Mount plays really hard and they'll never stop,'' senior guard Velton Jones said. "Even if they're down 30, they're never going to stop playing. That's what they did tonight. We're just glad to get out of here with a victory.''

"I'm very thankful that we were able to hang on and pull the win out,'' Toole said. "I thought we played an excellent first half defensively as well as offensively, especially against a style and a system we hadn't seen before and didn't have a lot of time to prepare for. I thought we did some really good things on both ends of the floor in the first half. We just have to become better at doing it for two halves. I thought offensively in the second half we were pretty good. It's just the defensive side that's killing me.''

The Colonials in the first half held the Mountaineers to 22 points, limited them to 28.6 percent shooting from the field and forced 12 turnovers.

The second half?

Mount St. Mary's scored 46 points, shot 53.8 percent from the field and made only four turnovers. That transformed what should have been a Colonial cruise into a bit of a white knuckler.

"The score's not even what bothers me, to be honest,'' Toole said. "I like to be up by one when the horn goes off. I don't care about the margin of victory. I just care about the attention to detail, and that's where we let down. Last week against Quinnipiac, we rebounded like mad men, and then maybe because Mount St. Mary's isn't as dominant a rebounding team we forget that that's an important part of the game.''

The Colonials had just a 30-29 rebounding edge Saturday evening.

Toole also cited failures to box-out on free throws and poor defense on ball screens as irritants.

"Those are the kinds of things that bother me,'' he said. "We have to be better than that. Again, it's attention to detail, and in order for us to become the type of team that we want to be we have to have better attention to detail.''

On the other hand, the Colonials had little trouble handling the Mount's "mayhem'' style of defense. Mount St. Mary's, under first-year coach Jamion Christian, presses full court for 40 minutes in an attempt to disrupt the opposing offense. However, the Colonials were rarely bothered.

"We turned the ball over on a couple plays, but overall I think we handled their pressure pretty well," Velton Jones said. "They like to trap the first pass (inbounds), so we tried to counter that by having me take it out or another guard take it out and then once they go 'trap' we just get it back and handle their pressure as well as we can.''

"It helps when you have guys who can make basketball plays because that's what they do. They make you play basketball,'' Toole said. "You have to read and react. You have to be alert. You have to be energetic, urgent. If you have guys who can make basketball plays, I think you can adjust to it pretty quickly.''

The Mount St. Mary's press made Velton Jones more of a playmaker than a scorer on this evening. Jones did score nine points, but his seven assists probably were more helpful.

"It wasn't my night to be a scorer,'' Jones said. "Karvel was hot and Russell had some good shots. It was just me going with the flow of the game, not trying to force anything. I just had to beat the press and find the open man, and I think I did that.''

Anderson had his second consecutive 22-point game and proved a crowd favorite with a 13-point first half that helped the Colonials hold a 33-22 lead at the break.

"I'm just kind of playing to what's available,'' Anderson said. "With the press, I knew I was going to have to be a little more aggressive offensively because they were trying to take the ball out of Velton's hands and force him to make plays for other people. I was just ready when my opportunity came, and fortunately I got a lot of opportunities tonight. I'm always confident that I can make a shot.''

"He was terrific,'' Toole said. "Terrific. He's been playing terrific. He kind of shot them out of the 1-3-1 (zone defense) there in the first half, which I thought was an important thing for us, because they've used that very well in some of their previous games. I thought he and Velton made some nice plays to carve it up, and now all of a sudden we're seeing man to man where we can operate a little bit easier.''

With a 6-2 NEC record, the Colonials can operate a little bit easier, too. Three more league wins will virtually assure them of making the league tournament, which is always one goal. However, they've also put themselves in position to seriously contend for the regular-season championship, which would guarantee them home court throughout the NEC Tournament.

"We started out bad, but you can't get discouraged,'' Velton Jones said. "It's a long season. We knew we let two (games) get away and that we were just going to have to keep grinding out the year, and that's what we're doing - keep taking it day-by-day and keep playing and keep practicing. It's just the grind of the season, you know.''

UP NEXT: St. Francis Brooklyn lost its second straight Saturday night, falling at Central Connecticut State, 72-70. The Blue Devils led, 69-62, with 2:40 remaining but needed three free throws from Kyle Vinales in the final 24 seconds to seal it. Vinales had 19 points to lead a quintet of five double-figure scorers for CCSU, which was just 15-of-25 from the free throw line.

Jalen Cannon scored 18 points and had 14 rebounds to lead the Terriers, while Ben Mockford added 16 points.

WEIRD STUFF: Last Thursday night at Saint Francis University, Anderson scored 19 consecutive points for Robert Morris in a 5:12 span. Only two nights later, Shane Gibson scored 19 consecutive points for Sacred Heart to help the Pioneers beat visiting Monmouth, 82-68. Unlike Anderson, who scored all 19 of his points from the field, Gibson scored most of his from the free throw line. He was 11-for-11 from the chalk during his spree.

Gibson began his decisive binge with the Pioneers trailing, 56-46, with 11:48 remaining. When he finished, Sacred Heart led, 65-64, with 5:58 left.

NEC NUGGETS: Bryant had won eight consecutive games overall before hitting a speed bump last weekend. The Bulldogs followed a loss at Sacred Heart Thursday night with a 79-78 loss to visiting LIU Brooklyn Saturday. Bryant's Alex Francis scored off a rebound and was fouled with 1.2 seconds left but missed the ensuing free throw, leaving the Bulldogs a point short. Bryant's Dyami Starks led all scorers with 25 points ... Monmouth, which hasn't won at Sacred Heart since 2003, led the Pioneers, 68-67, with 4:51 left but didn't score again. The Hawks shot poorly from beyond the arc (4-for-16) and the free throw line (14-of-25). Gibson scored 33 points, including 24 in the second half. He was 15-of-17 from the chalk, including 13-for-13 in the second half. Teammate Louis Montes had 25 points ... Wagner moved to 5-3 in the NEC with an 81-56 win at St. Francis University. Jonathan Williams led a balanced Seahawk offense with 19 points ... Quinnipiac handed visiting Fairleigh Dickinson its fifth consecutive loss, 58-56. Ike Azotam had a 14-10 double-double for the Bobcats. FDU made only eight of 18 free throw attempts.