Lance Jacobs’ joy and reluctance could be heard in his voice. It sounded like a burden had finally been lifted, like the senior co-captain could finally graduate in peace.

Jacobs and his Colorado College teammates had finally done something they had not done in nearly two years: win a road game.

‘To be honest, I was starting to question whether or not we could actually win a game on the road,’ Jacobs said. ‘Losing just became contagious. It became a routine; a cancer.’

The Tigers were able to snap their 29-game streak with a come-from-behind 55-52 victory against Sewanee (Tenn.) on Feb. 1.

It was CC’s first win on the road in its two seasons as a member of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), and its first win away from its own arena since Feb. 24, 2007, when it beat UC-Santa Cruz on a neutral court in the third-place game of the Association of D-III Independents West Region Championship in Lincoln, Neb.

Even though it was a momentous win for Colorado, the game was played in typical Tigers fashion.

Although going winless last season at 0-24, Colorado was not involved in many blowouts or lopsided defeats. In fact, most of the games were close. CC held numerous late leads, only to see each one squandered away in the closing minutes.

‘With 40 seconds left last week (against Sewanee), in the back of my mind, I thought it could go the way like in the past; right there in front of us,’ Jacobs said. ‘I think it was the first time in my career here that we actually just played good basketball down the stretch.’

While the win means the Tigers stay in the hunt for a berth in their conference tournament, the ‘W’ is much more significant to the program as a whole.

As the sole D-III team competing in the state of Colorado, the Tigers play a much more rigorous schedule than most would expect, having already played road in games in Texas, Mississippi, Indiana, Georgia and Tennessee.

Still, despite the treacherous beginning to their schedule, third-year head coach Andy Partee still believes in his players to help build the CC program into a competitor.

‘The leadership of the seniors has definitely helped the younger guys not get down on themselves,’ Partee said. ‘There are no opportunities to quit. They have to just keep pushing and pushing. That has kind of been a theme for this program the last couple of years.’

That would be a program that has won four of its last 45 games, currently only has 10 players on its roster, and is currently sitting in last place in its division at 4-17, 3-9 in SCAC play.

Yet Partee, a former assistant coach at Brown University, said recruiting is actually going well, and is in fact aided by the struggling economy.

‘Recruiting is a year-round thing; I happen to do a lot of recruiting from my desk by e-mail and phone,’ Partee said. ‘With the economy the way it is, it has had an affect on the number of applicants applying to school, and looking to pay their way through a big, expensive school.’

Last week’s road victory was certainly a good place for Partee and the Tigers to start. Overcoming adversity late, the Tigers finished the game with only eight eligible players, having had two starters foul out.

Partee pointed out that even though he only had a limited number of guys to turn to at the end of that game, he still expected to win.

‘Sometimes the team, by habit, is sometimes hoping to win,’ Partee said. ‘Well, last week, we struck a line through hope. We expected to win that game. The guys were all confident in themselves and each other.’

Despite Partee’s enthusiasm and optimism, nobody expected to win that game more than Jacobs. After a lopsided loss the Friday before in a game where the Tigers ‘didn’t really show up’ and looked ‘lethargic,’ Jacobs took it upon himself to rally his troops.

‘We had a team meeting in the hotel,’ Jacobs recalled. ‘(Co-captain Nate Brodman and I) reminded them of last season, and how we want to see the program build. We wanted to get them fired up, like a win was going to get us into the conference tournament.’

Now, Partee is looking forward to the next step: having his team stick around until the conference tournament in March.

‘Our goal all year has been to still be playing basketball in March,’ Partee said. ‘When the guys go to practice every day, they get the basketballs out of the cage, which is always locked. The combination is a word; it’s ‘March.’ It’s a reminder to keep pushing forward.’

Published on February 9, 2009 at 12:00 pm