If La Roche College men's basketball coach Scott Lang were to grade his players' performance after four games, he would give them an incomplete.

The Redhawks can't seem to finish.

"In the three games we've lost, we've been right there," said Lang, who took over the La Roche program in the spring of 1997. "We just haven't been able to finish.

"Now, you have to give some credit to the opposition. The teams we've lost to are a combined 8-3, so we've played some good competition. But, ultimately, we've got to learn how to do that."

Lang has high hopes for the Redhawks, especially if they learn how to seal the deal. La Roche, 1-3, has defeated Penn State Beaver, 76-69, and lost to Marymount, 70-66; Waynesburg, 78-66, and Geneva, 78-73.

With seniors Nate Davis, who is 6 feet 6, and Rob Brisco, 6-7, on the inside, La Roche has good size for a Division III team. Plus, junior guard Zack Kostorick, 6-2, also returns after averaging 11.0 points and 3.75 assist a game last season.

Add in the fact Lang has a deep squad and can throw bodies at opponents, and it is easy to understand his optimism.

"We're deep, we're athletic, we've got some size, we've got a lot of things going for us," Lang said.

But ...

"But we're struggling on offense right now. I don't think it's a lack of talent or that what we are doing isn't working. We seem to be getting good looks, but we just aren't scoring the way we should.

"We're playing decent defense. Geneva took what I thought were some questionable shots against us, but made them."

La Roche is averaging 70.2 points a game on offense, while allowing 73.8. The Redhawks made just 39.1 percent of their field-goal attempts against Waynesburg and connected on just 40 percent (24 of 60) in the Geneva loss.

"Against Geneva we were up by seven [36-29] at the half, which was fine, but we should have been up by 13 or 14," Lang said. "We just missed a number of easy shots and we gave up some easy shots."

Davis, from Cheswick Christian, is averaging 11.8 points and 6 rebounds a game for La Roche, which was 8-17 overall and 6-12 in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference last season. Brisco, who is from Maryland, is averaging 5 rebounds a game.

Joining Kostorick, a North Catholic High graduate, in the backcourt are point guard Mike Williams, a 5-9 sophomore from Camden, N.J., and Dylan Grazier, a 6-1 sophomore from Plum High School. Grazier, a long-range shooter, is averaging 17.8 ppg. Against Geneva he was 6 of 12 from 3-point range and scored 21 points.

Junior guards Steve Lucas, 6-1, and Josh Rulnick, 5-7; sophomore swingman Andy Tressler, 6-2, and freshmen LaMorris Lowman, 6-4, and Nate Wojciechowski, 6-2, have seen considerable playing time. Rulnick is from Plum, Tressler hails from Leechburg, Lowman is from Midland and Wojciechowski is a South Allegheny graduate.

While Lang likes his starters, he plans to shake things up if the on-court results don't improve.

"We're still looking to find the right combination of guys," he said. "If we don't improve on offense, that could mean moving some people into the starting lineup. It'll all depend on how things go."

In the AMCC preseason poll, Lake Erie and Penn State Behrend were the top picks. Lake Erie (25-3 overall, 17-1 AMCC last year) is the defending champion, while Behrend finished 21-8, 16-2. La Roche was picked to finish eighth in the 10-team conference.

"Lake Erie and Behrend are the favorites, but I think three through 10 could finish in any order, the conference is that good," Lang said.

The top six teams in the standings advance to the AMCC playoffs. Lang likes the Redhawks' chances at some postseason action. Toward that end, La Roche opened conference play Wednesday against Penn State Altoona and played Pitt-Bradford last night.

"We play four conference games before the [holiday] break and then when we come back [after New Year's] that's about all we play, so we need to get things in order," Lang said. Preseason poll

The ranking of men's basketball teams in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference preseason poll:

Rank/School.....2006-07 record

1. Lake Erie.....25-3

1. Penn State Behrend.....21-8

3. Hilbert.....14-14

4. Pitt-Bradford.....14-13

5. Fronstburg St......10-16

6. Penn State Altoona.....10-16

7. Medaille.....11-14

8. La Roche.....8-17

9. Mt. Aloysius.....9-16

10. Pitt-Greensburg.....3-22