Moon Township, Pa. - Robert Morris University will be in an unusual situation Saturday. Sort of.

After all, it's rare that a team gets a second crack at the same non-conference team in the same season.

The Colonials will have that opportunity, however. And maybe this time they'll beat "Savannah State.''

Hampton, where Robert Morris plays Saturday, is "similar to Savannah State,'' RMU coach Andrew Toole said. "Hampton controls tempo. They're very, very physical - just like Savannah State was.''

And Hampton and Savannah State are both in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), yet another similarity.

So perhaps the Colonials will have an edge Saturday.

"I hope so,'' Toole said. "We lost at Savannah State. Hopefully that grabs the guys' attention. Hopefully we'll understand that we have experience to draw on from a game in which we weren't very successful.''

The Colonials, however, were successful at Campbell Tuesday night, getting over the hump against the Fighting Camels, 61-58, for their first road victory of the season.

"A gritty win. It really was,'' Toole said. "We had interesting lineups out there. Some guys played extra minutes. We played a good bit of zone (defense). We used duct tape and just tried to piece it together.''

That win was the fifth in seven games for the Colonials since they began the season with blowout losses at Rider and against Lehigh.

"The first couple games, we weren't a team, really,'' senior point guard Velton Jones said. "Now we're starting to get rolling. We're starting to click. We're playing together, and that's helping us a lot. We're staying together no matter what happens through the good and the bad.''

For sure, the Colonials confronted, and conquered, some adversity on their trip to Campbell.

For one thing, after they landed in Raleigh, N.C., Monday evening, they learned their bags had gone on to St. Louis. Those bags didn't arrive at their hotel until about 1:30 Tuesday afternoon.

That meant their shoot around Tuesday was, uh, interesting.

"He couldn't go,'' Toole said of Myers-Pate. "It's still really nagging. He can't drive off his foot. You can see he's not comfortable putting weight on it.''

So the Colonials were down two players, one less than was Campbell. The Camels were without leading scorer Darren White (21.9 points per game) because he has a hand injury.

The see-saw game came down to the final seconds, and the Colonials received a huge lift from Karvel Anderson, who buried two three-points in the last 42 seconds. Anderson hit the second trey with 4.5 seconds remaining.

That gave the Camels a final chance. Did Toole consider fouling to keep the Camels from having a chance at a tying three?

After all, with a depleted bench, he didn't want to go to overtime.

"For sure,'' he said.

During Campbell's timeout, Toole decided the Colonials would foul in the backcourt and send the Camels to the free throw line.

"We've been in that situation a few times and I haven't fouled,'' Toole said. "They call timeout. They have to go the length of the floor. We decided, 'OK, we're going to foul.'''

The Campbell called a second timeout. During this huddle, Toole learned that Mike McFadden's Achilles was bothering him. He had to come out. David Appolon went in. That meant the Colonials had a lineup on the floor that really hadn't practiced the defense that would be employed.

"All right, we're not fouling,'' Toole told his squad. "We're just going to defend. And you know what? We'll be OK.''

And they were - barely.

Campbell's aptly-named Trey Freeman took a shot from the top of the key a step beyond the arc.

"He got a good look at it,'' Toole said. "I mean, he really did. When it left his hands, it looked darned good.''

However, Freeman's shot rattled out, and the Colonials had improved to 5-4.

"It was a tremendous game for a couple reasons,'' Toole said.

One, the Camels designed their game plan to take Jones out of the game, and he managed to score just six points while dishing four assists.

"Velton made great decision after great decision,'' Toole said. "Velton at times was frustrated because he couldn't turn the corner and get into the lane, but he was making the right reads and allowing us to get shots. So I think that's a great step for him.''

Second, Robert Morris won despite being unable to use anything close to its regular personnel rotations.

"We had some crazy lineups out there at times,'' Toole said.

That's been the case more than a few times this season. Somebody wondered if perhaps Toole is using these non-conference contests as "laboratory games'' to get his team ready for the start of Northeast Conference play Jan. 3.

"You're giving me way too much credit,'' Toole said, chuckling. "Sometimes what it comes down to is, who needs a rest? So sometimes we have some 'interesting' combinations out there. There are some guys who we know can play out of position a little bit. There are certain guys we know we don't like on the court together and so sometimes things get a little bit jumbled. But sometimes I look out on the court and wonder, 'How did this group of guys get out there?'

"There are times when I trust certain guys in mismatch situations. From the other bench they might say, 'Oh, there's a 6'8" guy on Ant Myers. And I'm thinking, 'We're good.' I know he's going to fight like crazy. And when you have a number of guys like that that you can put out there, sometimes you're OK saying, 'This doesn't really look great, but it might be effective.'''

And so Appolon played more minutes against Campbell than he might have. And so did freshman Stephan Hawkins and junior college transfer Vaughn Morgan.

"They gave us some solid minutes,'' Toole said.

Appolon in particular.

The heretofore little-used sophomore followed a good performance against Ohio University last Saturday with more contributions at Campbell. Appolon scored eight points and had two steals.

"He was solid,'' Toole said. "There were some more things involved offensively and defensively (than against Ohio University). We switched defenses more. But he was good. He gave us productive minutes. He made some tough, aggressive winning plays. He was very, very solid.''

So is Toole cautiously optimistic that Appolon can become a trusted player off the bench?

Maybe not quite yet.

"He had a two- or three-game stretch last year when he did some good stuff,'' Toole said. "Again, his challenge has got to be the consistency, the way he approaches practice. If he approaches practice the right way, then we'll have more confidence in him, more trust in him. It's hard sometimes to put a guy in when a guy is making mistakes in the defensive game plan during the shootaround. That doesn't build a lot of trust for them to go into the game.

"Obviously there are certain guys who are better in games than in practice. I understand that. And I'm not saying you have to tear the cover off every day in practice. I'm just saying you have to have some consistent focus. It builds trust within your team.''

The Colonials received great performances from Lucky Jones and McFadden at Campbell.

"Mike and Lucky were terrific,'' Toole said.

McFadden contributed 10 points and seven rebounds. Lucky Jones, despite constantly battling the flu and becoming sick at times before and during the game, scored 15 points and had five rebounds, four assists and five steals.

"He was excellent,'' Toole said. "He was always around the basketball. He made a ton of winning plays. He got some crucial rebounds. He really played well.''

Because of the Colonials' two wins following their loss at Savannah State, a visitor asked Toole if he'd thought about what his team might be like if it can get everybody healthy.

"I don't because regardless of who's been healthy or not we've all been inconsistent,'' he said. "Even though we beat Ohio University, there were so many errors we made. Like little communication switches where we gave up wide open three-pointers.''

However, Toole paused at that point - and then did discuss what might be.

"What I do think is if we can get everybody healthy now we have a lot of different guys with different experience,'' he said. "We still need Vaughn and (Hawkins) to continue to improve and continue to get ready for conference play, but guys are really playing together right now. They're playing hard -- the last two games for sure. I think we have the potential to be good. And I think we have the potential on some nights to be really good.

"But it's just been so piecemeal so far this year. We've taken steps and then we kind of revert back. And we've taken steps and then someone gets banged up and the lineup gets adjusted or the rotations get changed. So people haven't necessarily been comfortable yet with how they're going to be (used) in games. I'm hopeful that we do get everybody healthy and we can keep everyone bought in and we can keep everybody playing together. (If that happens), well, now you're really dangerous and you have a lot of different options and a lot of different bodies.''

NOTES: The Hampton Pirates are 1-6 after beating Howard, 58-50, last Saturday in their first home game of the season. Freshman guard Deron Powers led the Pirates in that game with 22 points and is their leading scorer with an average of 12.1 points per game. He's also 23-of-24 from the free throw line ... David Bruce, a 6'10" junior, is averaging 9.7 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. In the Pirates' 64-54 loss at Robert Morris last season, Bruce had 16 points and 13 rebounds ... In that game, Velton Jones scored 18 points and Lucky Jones added 16 ... The Colonials had another good night from the free throw line at Campbell, making 21-of-26 attempts. They're shooting 79.2 percent from the stripe this season ... Hampton averages 58.4 points per game and allows 64.6 ... The Pirates are shooting just 26 percent from deep but holding opponents to 30.1 percent from international waters.