On Tuesday, March 19, the Colonial fans all piled in to the Charles Sewall Center, also known as The Chuck to watch their team take on Kentucky in the first round of the NIT.

The Chuck, which is normally no more than two-thirds full, was packed. The Colonials came out strong holding the Wildcats scoreless for nearly the first 5 minutes.

“We just wanted to get into them and pressure them to let them know we’re here and we’re not going anywhere,” guard Velton Jones said.

That’s exactly what they did. RMU extended its lead to 13 in the second half. However that wasn’t enough to stop the defending national champs from tying the game with just 3 minutes remaining. Thanks to two free throws from McFadden, RMU took a 59-57 lead with 8.7 seconds left in the game. “I just took a deep breath and knocked them down,” McFadden said.

Kentucky got a final shot off; however, it missed and the Robert Morris fans charged the court.

“What we talked about after the Arkansas game [in December] is that if we can continually put ourselves in this kind of position against these kinds of teams, eventually we’re going to break through, eventually we’re going to have the win that you guys worked for,” said Toole, head coach of RMU.