Robert Morris Gives St. Bonaventure Tough Fight Despite Handful of Mistakes

Last night, Robert Morris (3-2) had a chance to prove itself against a very tough St. Bonaventure team (0-5).

Despite leaving the Reilly Center with a 75-61 loss, in a way, Robert Morris did prove itself as a legit team that just needs some more work prior to the start of Horizon League play as it took the Bonnies the entire 40 minutes to finally pull away from the Colonials.

Looking at the final score may not indicate that but the Colonials were down just 55-52 at the 7:49 mark of the second half before being outscored 20-9 the rest of the way.

While the Colonials played far from a perfect game through the first 33 minutes, the difference was that the Bonnies cleaned up their own mistakes over the final seven minutes while the Colonials did not.

Do not let that take away from the fact that even with the loss, Colonial faithful should still be excited for the weeks and months ahead as last night’s loss was not against an inferior program, rather an annually tough and respected one.

In fact, St. Bonaventure entered Thursday ranked as the No. 118 team in the Kenpom rankings. In comparison, Robert Morris entered the matchup as the No. 218 team in the country based on the same metrics.

Final pic.twitter.com/xS3s48J1Sw

— RMU Basketball (@RMUMBasketball) November 21, 2025

One of the problems that the Colonials have dealt with in each of their two losses this season is the inability to start fast on either end of the floor. While they avoided a slow start in the upset win at Drake earlier in the season, in the losses at Iowa and now at St. Bonaventure, the Colonials got off to horrid starts.

The Bonnies found themselves up 12-0 after the Colonials committed two turnovers, went 0-of-5 from the field and allowed two offensive rebounds that led to points, all of which happened by the 16:36 mark of the first half.

The Colonials eventually settled into the game and responded with a 7-0 run themselves which put them five and then went on an 8-0 late in the half which cut their deficit to just four before halftime.

One player that shined, and really helped the Colonials weather the early storm by the Bonnies, was forward Josh Hill. After missing his first shot off of the bench, Hill went onto score 13 points and hauled in four rebounds in the first 20 minutes of game time.

Hill finished the game with his first double-double in a Colonials’ uniform as ended with 19 points and 10 rebounds.

Robert Morris forward Josh Hill looks to pass the ball against St. Bonaventure on Nov. 21, 2025 — RMU Athletics

After trailing by just four at halftime, the Colonials started to slip again in the early portions of the second half as they found themselves down 51-40 shortly after the first media stoppage of the half due to some unforced turnovers, which has been a season-long issue.

In total, the Colonials finished the game with 15 turnovers, 11 of which came from their guards. Many of their scoring chances were shut down when the driving player would step out of bounds prior to getting the pass out of their hands.

Again, turnovers have been a detriment to the Colonials through the team’s first five games as they finished with 23 turnovers in the loss against Iowa and even had 17 turnovers in the win at Drake.

The turnover problem arises due to the inexperience of the backcourt which features a true freshman in Darius Livingston, a pair of Division-II transfers in Albert Vargas and Cam Wilds, and a player in Ta’Zir Smith who really only played at the JUCO level to this point in his career.

With that kind of combination, the only way to get through that sort of issue is to play more games and more minutes at the Division-I level but with Horizon League play quickly approaching, it is an issue that needs to be worked through sooner rather than later.

Robert Morris guard Darius Livingston brings the ball up the court against a St. Bonaventure defender on Nov. 21, 2025 — RMU Athletics

Like they did in the first half, the Colonials battled back from a double-digit deficit and made it just a one score game after a pair of DeSean Goode free throws made the score 55-52 with 7:49 left in the game.

After another Bonnies’ bucket pushed it 57-55, the Colonials had a chance to keep their grasp on the game’s momentum when winger Ryan Prather Jr. found himself open for a wide-open three. Unfortunately for the Colonials, Prather’s three-point attempt did not fall.

It seemed like from that point on, the Bonnies grabbed full control of the game and started to finally pull away from the Colonials.

The three ball has been a hit-or-miss issue with the Colonials throughout the early portion of the season. On a team without multiple knock-down shooters from range, the Colonials need Prather to be the guy to make those types of shots in those types of moments.

Yes, Vargas has shot 44% from three on 18 attempts and Wilds has hit 6-of-9 from range, but Prather was looked at as the team’s “three-point” shooter before the season started based on his success from range last year.

He just has not been that for the Colonials to this point of the season as after Thursday’s 1-of-7 three-point performance, Prather is just 3-of-22 from range this year. In comparison, Prather shot 39.7% from three on 136 attempts last season.

Prather should, and more than likely will, bust out of his three-point slump at some point, but it makes winning games that much tougher, which was shown in the loss to St. Bonaventure.

Robert Morris guard Ryan Prather Jr. in a game against St. Bonaventure on Nov. 21, 2025 — RMU Athletics

Regardless, the Colonials’ loss to St. Bonaventure is still a win in the long-term as they managed to battled a top-120 team as the Bonnies for 35 minutes before withering away due to many self-inflicted wounds.

It was only the fifth time that the group has played together in a real game and they will continue to improve each and every time that they step onto the floor together.

Robert Morris’ next chance to improve is on Sunday afternoon when it takes on Monmouth, the No. 212 team in Kempom, which should give them the most even matchup that they have played to date this year.