If you told Kevin Baggett his team would finish over .500 on a seven game season-opening road trip, the 13th-year Rider coach would have signed for that. Now that the Broncs (4-2) have checked that off, they will try to end this coast-to-coast odyssey with a signature win over Villanova (3-4) on Wednesday night at Finneran Pavilion. Victories over high-major opponents have proved elusive, with Rider’s last one coming on Dec. 22, 2017 when it beat Penn State on a buzzer beater. It is 0-19 in such games since, including a pair of losses to UCLA and Iowa by an average of 30 points. “We have to stay true to ourselves,” guard T.J. Weeks Jr. said. “I feel like when we played the other high-majors, we tried to play their game instead of playing our own game.” That starts with taking care of the ball and knocking down some shots. The Broncs have averaged 16.5 turnovers and shot 16.6% from 3 (6-for-36) in those games against UCLA and Iowa. That’s not a recipe for an upset anywhere in the world. “You got to make 3s,” Baggett said. “We got to get back to making 3s. We’re struggling to shoot 3s of late and when you play these high-level games you have to make at least 10 3s to give yourself a chance to be in the game.” Baggett said in the preseason he wants the team to shoot more 3s — Rider attempted 183 fewer treys on the season than its opponents and made two fewer per game on average — and so far it has increased the volume by about two per contest up from 16.8 to 18.3 although the connect percentage is at just 29.1. Weeks Jr. (33.3%) and Jay Alvarez (43.3%) are the top threats from beyond the arc, although Weeks Jr. is just four of his last 15 and Alvarez only made seven 3s all of last season at Houston Christian as he played through multiple injuries. Still, the Broncs have managed to secure no worse than a 4-3 mark on this seven-game trip. They have won all four of their ‘peer games’ — over San Diego, Coppin State, Navy and Bucknell. “When you experience a winning culture early, you see how hard it is to win, but you become used to it, you understand it and you try to execute that further down the line,” center Tariq Ingraham said. “It’s been a hard schedule. We haven’t played a home game expect the exhibition, which doesn’t really count. It’s hard, but we’re winning.” Perhaps playing the last of this road trip close to home — Villanova is a 45-minute ride from Rider’s campus in Lawrenceville — will help. “We have to execute, play defense and hit open shots,” said Ingraham, who played his high school ball at Bonner & Prendergast about eight miles from Villanova’s Main Line campus. “Those other two games we came out a little timid on a big stage,” Ingraham continued. “If we get out of our heads in the beginning at Villanova I think we’ll be fine. It’s all mental now. It’s confidence and we have to have that.” Rider Gameday WHO: Rider (4-2) at Villanova (3-4) WHEN: Wednesday, 7 p.m, Finneran Pavilion, Villanova, Pa. TV/ RADIO: FS2/ 107.7 The Bronc Retro LAST TIME OUT: Rider def. Bucknell, 57-53; Villanova lost to Maryland, 76-75 STREAK: Rider W1; Villanova L1 SERIES HISTORY: Villanova leads, 23-2 (or, maybe, 24-1). There’s no doubt the Wildcats have won at least 15 straight in the series, but there’s a disputed result from the 1945-46 season. The schools agree the final score was 53-47, but both claim to have won the game. KENPOM RANK: Rider 234; Villanova 64 SCOUTING VILLANOVA: Kyle Neptune is a coach on the hot seat. The third-year boss missed the NCAA Tournament in each of his first two seasons and is off to a 3-4 start, with losses to Columbia, Big 5 rival Saint Joseph’s, offensively-challenged Virginia and Maryland last time out. The Wildcats coughed up a double-digit lead against the Terrapins and fell when Eric Dixon’s 3-pointer at the buzzer clanged off the rim. “Maryland did a great job in the second half of getting into us and took away some of our momentum. It carried them through the second half. They made some timely shots and some plays at the rim. In a one possession game they were one possession better than us,” Neptune said postgame. Despite that miss, Dixon, a 6-8 graduate student, is having a fabulous season. He ranks third nationally in scoring at 26.7 points, while also hauling down 7.2 rebounds and shooting 53.7% from 3 and a perfect 24-of-24 from the foul line. Miami transfer Wooga Poplar is next at 13.1 points and La Salle transfer Jhamir Brickus checks in at 11.7 points. Villanova also added Penn transfer Tyler Perkins, who made a circus 3-point shot in overtime at Alumni Gymnasium last season to sink the Broncs.