Robert Morris Falls to Alvaro Folgueiras, Iowa in Season Opener

Robert Morris tipped its 50th season of Division-I basketball off against a familiar face as the Colonials visited the Alvaro Folgueiras and the Iowa Hawkeyes.

While Robert Morris fell to Iowa and Folgueiras in blowout fashion, 101-69, the game will serve more as a stepping stone for the new-look Colonials.

Last year’s Horizon League Championship winning team lost its opener to West Virginia by 27 points.

The Colonials were crippled by a poor first half due to the intense defensive scheme that every Ben McCollum led team deploys. In total, the Hawkeyes forced as many turnovers (23) as the Colonials had field goals (23) made in the game.

Additionally, the Colonials defense ran into trouble as they committed foul after foul which allowed the Hawkeyes to go 36-of-44 from the free throw line.

In comparison, the Colonials struggled in their chances at the line as they shot just 12-of-22 in the loss.

The positive to take out of it on the offensive side was that Andy Toole made some halftime adjustments and the offense played fairly well in the second half as they shot 12-of-19 from the field and 10-of-13 from three-point range after halftime.

The Hawkeyes’ trips to the foul line started early as Colonials’ guard Albert Vargas fouled Cam Manyawu on the first possession of the game.

Manyawu went on to sink three free throws before Nikolaos Chitikoudis scored the Colonials first two points of the season on a gorgeous turnaround midrange shot.

That would be the last good thing to happen for the Colonials for a while as the Hawkeyes opened up a 14-0 run which was capped off on a Folgueiras three, a sight Colonial fans are used to seeing go in their favor.

By the time that the under-12 timeout came around, Folgueiras was outscoring the entire Colonials’ roster as he had 8 points while Robert Morris has just seven. The Hawkeyes led 27-7 at that point.

The Colonials gained some ground back after turning to Chitikoudis possession-after-possession over the next few minutes. His fourth bucket on his sixth shot made the score 31-15 with just under eight minutes to go in the half.

The Hawkeyes extended their lead to 23 points, 49-26, by the time that halftime rolled around due to the Colonials horrid offensive start.

Nobody on the Colonials outside of Chitikoudis did much of anything noteworthy in the first half.

The Colonials’ lone returner, Ryan Prather Jr. opened up the second half with a pair of triples but the Hawkeyes’ onslaught continued from all three levels as the defecit grew to 61-37 just a few minutes into the second half.

The Hawkeyes then went on another run, an 8-0 run to be exact, due to turnover after turnover.

Transfer forward DeSean Goode snapped the run with a deep three-pointer, the first Colonials’ field goal in over three minutes of game time.

By the under-eight timeout, the Hawkeyes’ lead grew to 84-52 due to the 20 turnovers that they forced.

The Hawkeyes’ lead stayed around the 30-point margain though and largely because the Colonials making 9-of-13 field goals, including 7-of-9 threes through the first 12 minutes of the closing period.

The Hawkeyes eventually passed the 100-point plateau and every Iowa player scored at least one point in the game.

Folgueiras finished as the Hawkeyes’ third-leading scorer with 11 points with three triples. He added five rebounds, three assists and three steals against his former team.

The Colonials saw three players reach double-digits in the loss: Chitikoudis led the way with 14, Prather and Goode followed up with 12 and 11 points each, respectively.

Transfer guard Cam Wilds missed the game, as did JUCO transfer guard Jeremiah Littlejohn.

That allowed freshman guard Darius Livingston to play a solid 23 minutes in his debut but he struggled as he went 3-of-10 from the field and turned the ball over six times.

In total, 11 different Colonials played in the season-opening loss to the Hawkeyes.

Robert Morris will stay in the state of Iowa as they take on Drake, Iowa’s head coach Ben McCollum’s former program, on Thursday evening.