Moon Township, Pa. - OK, here's the thing about exhibition games.

They are far more exhibitions than they are games. The results don't count in the season win-loss record.

They usually are played more as exhibitions than games. For example, a team that invariably plays man-to-man defense will play a zone for a while just to practice playing it. And an opponent that doesn't usually play a zone defense might be asked to play zone for a while just so the other team can practice against it.

Personnel groupings change far more often than they will when the games count. Maybe the officials don't call the games quite the same way, perhaps overlooking some fouls because the games don't count.

They are exhibitions. They're not real.

Oh, they're probably played more like real games by freshmen and other newcomers because they're trying to make impressions. And quite likely opponents of higher-level teams play harder because they're trying to prove something.

But, again, these are exhibition games. They do not count.

"Unfortunately I think there's some truth to that,'' Robert Morris University head coach Andrew Toole said. "But I also think the fact that there is some truth to it is an issue with some of our upperclassmen because there are only a finite number of games you get and you have to take advantage of all of them.''

Toole had just witnessed a perfect example of exhibition game unevenness Thursday evening at the Charles L. Sewall Center.

His Colonials breezed through a first half against Division III Saint Vincent College and led, 54-31, at the break. In the first 20 minutes, they made an astounding 11-of-13 shots from beyond the arc. They were 5-of-7 from the free throw line. They had 14 assists on their 19 field goals. They had only five turnovers.

In the second half?

The Colonials made 2-of-6 from international waters. They were an abysmal 13-of-26 from the free throw line. They had only four assists and nine turnovers. And they were outscored, 36-27.

Yes, they won, 81-67, but ...

"We've got to improve dramatically before next Friday if we're going to beat Rider,'' Toole said.

The game at Rider is for real. It counts. So one should expect a far more focused effort by the Colonials.

"That's what we need to work on -- sustaining the effort,'' said redshirt junior guard Coron Williams, who led the Colonials with 17 points Thursday night. "We just didn't do it tonight. We had too many defensive breakdowns. We do that at practice. We go from having a great practice to the next day coming out dead. I think we really need to work on that -- sustaining effort.

"Coach Toole said he can coach mistakes, but it's our attitude that has to change. We have to fix our attitude. You can't be worrying about emotions and attitudes when you're trying to win a championship.''

"The first half, we weren't worried about who shot the ball,'' junior guard Anthony Myers-Pate said. "As long as they were good shots, we took them. The second half I'd say we looked for ourselves more than others.''

"In the second half, it was one pass and a shot on too many occasions,'' Williams said. "We need to work on some things.''

"Some of our decision making wasn't what it needed to be (in the second half),'' Toole conceded. "We took some shots (that) maybe it wasn't the right time to do that.''

Some could argue that the Colonials played the entire second half without starting point guard Velton Jones, who sustained an apparent groin injury late in the first half. Maybe the senior's presence would have had a steadying influence.

"He was 1-for-2 (from the field) with one assist and two turnovers in 10 minutes in the first half,'' Toole noted, "so as much as I love Velton he didn't make that first half happen. And then obviously he wasn't in the second half, so he didn't make that happen, either.''

One silver lining to Jones' absence was that Myers-Pate, the backup point guard, played more minutes than he would have. Myers-Pate played a team-high 28 minutes, scored 12 points and had three assists against just one turnover.

"I think that was a great experience for Ant from the standpoint of understanding time and score,'' Toole said. "There's a lot of stuff we can talk to Ant about not only with his individual plays but also the way that he organized guys, making sure we were in our press-break (offense) or making sure everyone understood who they were matched up with, making sure everyone understood what we were running offensively.''

Three players made their unofficial - this was an exhibition, after all - Colonial debuts.

Freshman Stephan Hawkins, a 6'9" forward, played 14 minutes and had four points and four rebounds.

Junior transfer Vaughn Morgan, from Pittsburgh's Perry Traditional Academy, made quite an impact in his 22 minutes. The 6'6" forward scored 10 points - six on crowd-pleasing jams - had a game-high seven rebounds, including six on the offensive end, and blocked three shots.

"All my family was here,'' Morgan said. "It was the first time they got to see me play in about four years, so it was a big thing to me. I was a little nervous at first and then I just started playing. I made a couple mistakes. There's new stuff I have to learn (but) I feel like I played pretty well.''

"Vaughn did a lot of really good things,'' Toole said. "I think he's still working on his conditioning to play at this level. I think you could see in a short amount of time he started to fatigue. That's something he has to continue to work on, and his attention to detail has to be better. Because of his athleticism, he's able to kind of make up for some of the mistakes that he makes because of his ability to jump and his recovery time is terrific. I thought there were a lot of positives there. There are things we can continue to work with. Once he starts to become more comfortable with everything we're trying to do and more comfortable with the speed of the game, I think you're going to continue to see really good stuff from him.''

Junior transfer Karvel Anderson performed as advertised. The man can shoot. The 6'2" guard drained his first two attempts from downtown and finished with eight points in 19 minutes.

"I was a little nervous at the beginning of the game, but like most athletes once it starts all that goes away and you just try to win the game,'' Anderson said. "I think I played OK. I played solid. There are definitely some things I still need to learn, some mistakes I'm making. But for my first time, I did a lot better than I thought I was going to do.''

Regardless of what positives there were for the Colonials, Toole will concentrate on the negatives because, well, that's what coaches do. They look for teaching points.

One of those points could be the points the Colonials left at the free throw line. They missed 15 of their 33 free throw attempts. Some of the reason for that could be a lack of focus in this exhibition game.

"I hope it's all of (the reason),'' Toole said. "When we get those opportunities to go to the line, we have to take advantage of those points. I mean, we work hard to get to the free throw line, so we have to have guys who are going to go there and knock them down.''

Toole also didn't care for Saint Vincent's 49 percent accuracy from the field, which included 50 percent (11-of-22) from deep.

"Those are (defensive) numbers that are not going to win you a lot of games because we're not going to outscore a whole lot of people,'' Toole said. "Our defense has to get so much better it's stupid. And our attention to detail on both ends of the floor still needs to improve dramatically in order for us to have any type of success.''

Especially now that the games count.