Robert Morris basketball coach Mike Rice says freshman guard Karon Abraham is not a freshman anymore.

He can't be. He has played too many minutes, scored too many points and is too important to the Colonials to be a freshman anymore.

"My seniors always have been the guys who have stepped up," Rice said.

But this year, it's an 18-year-old guard who is a healthy 3 inches shy of the 6-foot mark who leads the Colonials in scoring -- 12.9 points per game.

"I would have told you you were crazy if you said Karon Abraham was going to be my leading scorer," Rice said, especially considering that Robert Morris returned two seniors -- guard Jimmy Langhurst and forward Rob Robinson -- who averaged more than nine points per game last season.

But Langhurst is out for the season after injuring his left knee, and defenses have collapsed on Robinson.

In the meantime, Abraham, from Paterson, N.J., has excelled.

Since Langhurst's injury, Abraham is averaging 15.5 points per game and has scored 20 points or more in five games. He has led the Colonials in scoring in nine of 22 games played and has been named the Northeast Conference's Rookie of the Week three times this season.

"Karon, he's got a big heart," Rice said. "He's tough in a small package."

Abraham and first-place Robert Morris (14-8, 9-1) will play Saint Francis (Pa.) (7-14, 5-5) tonight in Loretto.

At the start of the season, Rice expected Abraham to be one of the team's top defenders because of his speed and athleticism. Abraham has developed into a solid defender, often paired against an opponent's leading scorer.

"Since we need his offense, he's done everything I've asked him to do," Rice said.

Mainly, that's slowing down his pace.

"In high school, he just ran away from people because of his quickness and his athleticism," Rice said. "You just don't do that in Division I. He's playing with different tempo now. He went 100 miles per hour, trying to run away from people. Now he's stopping, letting the bigs screen his man.

"It's a process."

Rice credited Robert Morris' senior class for staying humble and coaching a freshman.

"That's not easy for seniors to now count and rely on a freshman as much as they have," Rice said.

It wasn't especially tough for senior forward Dallas Green, who feared for the worst when he met all the freshmen on the roster.

"I thought they were going to come in the game and start messing things up, go back to the bench," Green said. "But I'm very grateful that they came."

Abraham said he has listened to the coaching of his seniors about the pace of the game. Trusting them has been the biggest challenge of the college transition.

"In high school, everything was about me," he said. "I get the ball, I'm taking probably 20 shots a game. Here, I've got other people who can help me out, who can score and do their part."

Senior guard Mezie Nwigwe remembers when Abraham first started practicing with the Colonials.

"He was a hyper kid, just running around at first," Nwigwe said.

But Abraham proved himself to Nwigwe in Robert Morris' first game of the season -- a 100-60 loss at Syracuse. With the Colonials down by double digits, Abraham scored eight points in a row.

"He's not scared, no matter who we're playing or how much we're down," Nwigwe said.

Rice said he would still like to see more consistency from Abraham, who has struggled in road games and has had sluggish starts.

"We need him to play older," Rice said.

Though, he said he is happy with the production Abraham is giving right now, even if it's in spurts.

"He's given us everything he has," Rice said. "Without him, it would be interesting."

Looking for more from the Post-Gazette? Join PG+, our members-only web site. You'll get exclusive sports content, opinion, financial information, discounts from retailers and restaurants, and more. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.