With 11 days between games, the Robert Morris men's basketball team had ample time to try to figure out what went wrong after losing four of its first five contests.

After last night's 63-57 victory against rival Mount St. Mary's at home, Colonials coach Mike Rice said his team learned a lot during its break.

And it taught everybody else in the Northeast Conference that Robert Morris is still the team to beat.

Using a swarming defense, the Colonials (2-4, 1-0) limited the Mountaineers (3-4, 0-1) to 31 percent shooting in the first conference game of the year for both teams and a rematch of last year's NEC tournament championship, won by Robert Morris.

The Mountaineers entered the game as the NEC coaches' pick to win the conference.

Robert Morris forced 19 Mount St. Mary's turnovers in a game in which the Colonials never trailed.

Rice said he was impressed by his team's consistency after the lengthy break.

Robert Morris jumped out to an early 8-0 lead, holding the Mountaineers scoreless for nearly the first six minutes of the game.

Mount St. Mary's coach Milan Brown said the early deficit, caused by what he described as sloppy, hurried play, was too much.

"It's hard to climb back into a game, go uphill for 30, 35 minutes," he said.

Still, Robert Morris' fouls let the Mountaineers stay close.

The Colonials built a 13-point lead midway through the first half, but Mount St. Mary's closed the gap to 28-19 at halftime.

Nine of those 19 points came on the free-throw line.

During the break, Brown said he told his staff, " 'This probably could be a 20-point game right now.' That was the one thing I stressed to the team."

His players responded well in the second half, chipping away at the deficit.

With 10 minutes left, the Mountaineers were within five points. Two minutes later, they were down by three. One minute later, the deficit was one point.

That's when Robert Morris forward Russell Johnson, playing in his first rivalry game against Mount St. Mary's, hit a crucial 3-pointer that changed the momentum.

"That was a 'No, no, no. Nice shot,' " Rice said.

The Mountaineers crawled to within three points with three minutes remaining.

But the young Colonials did not cave against the veteran Mountaineers.

Guard Gary Wallace hit a jump shot, and forward Rob Robinson, who missed the majority of the game with foul problems, added a layup to give Robert Morris a cushion that helped them close out the game.

Wallace said he was impressed the team didn't break down "when things got crazy."

"We've had some issues with that," he said.

Rice agreed.

"I learned something from that tonight," he said. "We could have been really nervous, we could have folded, we could have pointed fingers as to why we weren't up more."

Instead, the Colonials closed out one of the best teams of the conference.

Robert Morris will next play Wagner at home at 7 p.m. Saturday.

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