MOON TOWNSHIP, Penn. – BJ Freeman scored a game-high 23 points but Robert Morris was able to overcome a strong start by the Milwaukee men's basketball team to record the 71-60 victory Saturday afternoon at UPMC Events Center.
 
The Panthers (12-13, 7-7 Horizon League) raced out to an early lead but fell behind the Colonials (10-15, 6-8 Horizon League) in the second half. The team responded and cut a 13-point deficit down to just three late but could not finish off the comeback in falling in the road contest.
 
"Our offense kind of got stagnant and we took really difficult shots," head coach Bart Lundy said about the first half start. "The bad offense really hurt our defense in that stretch. We came out in the second half and had some energy and started making some shots, but they made enough shots and got to the free throw line enough to keep the lead. I thought we chipped away and chipped away and gave ourselves some chances but could just never get over the hump."
 
Freeman put together the 23-point outing with help from a 6-of-7 showing from the line, while adding seven rebounds.
 
Angelo Stuart scored nine points off the bench, with Dominic Ham recording a career-best eight points on the afternoon. Faizon Fields finished with seven points and seven rebounds, snapping his streak of double-doubles.
 
"It's going to be difficult," Lundy said about bouncing back. "This group has been through it … are we going to come together or are we going to splinter apart? I thought we did splinter apart during that game a bit and we need to have some guys be leaders and grow up a bit and come out and play together and care about the team."
 
Markeese Hastings led RMU with 21 points, as the Colonials used a key 14-2 stretch at the end of the first half to take control and grab the 36-25 lead at intermission.
 
The MKE offense came out firing early and led 14-9 on three early 3's and at 19-13 on a corner triple from Ham.
 
The home team answered with seven straight, but a Fields' dunk made it 21-20 MKE and the Panthers were up 23-22 before Robert Morris put together a strong closing to the first by scoring 14 of the final 18 points to lead by 11 at the horn.
 
Back-and-forth for an extended period of time following intermission, the Panthers still trailed by 12 at 48-36 but used a 12-2 run of their own to make it a one-possession contest at 53-50 with 5:13 remaining on a pair of free throws from Fields.
 
RMU grabbed momentum right back with seven straight to push the advantage back to double-figures and the closest it would get the rest of the afternoon was seven as the home team won for the seventh straight contest in this series.
 
The Panthers connected on 33.9 percent (20-of-59) while also allowing an opponent to make over 40 percent from the floor (.436/24-55) for the first time in six games.
 
Up next, the road trip wraps up this coming Wednesday, traveling to Ohio to take on Cleveland State. Game time is set for 6 p.m. CT.