If there’s one thing Andy Toole does quite often, it’s worry. From the time he wakes up until the time he turns in, Toole’s high-energy motor is running.

“I worry about everything all the time,” said the longtime Robert Morris men’s basketball coach.

Toole was quite a bit concerned going into, during and even after his team’s latest outcome against winless Canisius on Wednesday at UPMC Events Center, a grind-it-out 72-64 victory that extended the Colonials’ winning streak to six games after they were able to overcome a two-point halftime deficit.

How prepared were his players heading into a holiday break after a six-day layoff from their last game, a 10-point win at Cornell?

Would they shrug at the thought of a struggling opponent with a new coach, no seniors in the starting lineup and seven straight losses by an average of 24 points?

“It’s the ultimate battle from a coaching perspective,” Toole said. “How mature is your team?”

For now, with a Thanksgiving break to enjoy, perhaps Toole can breathe a bit easier, if only for a day, before the Colonials (6-2) head to their next assignment Saturday at Ohio.

Knowing Toole’s nature, not hardly.

“Everybody wants to be a professional,” he said, “but being professional means that you play to a standard, that you prepare the same way, regardless of the opponent. Human nature tells you to chill. Every single day leading up to this game, that was the pre-practice message. That’s all we talked about. As much as you talk about it, I don’t know if it always sinks in.

“There were parts of this game and some individual players today that played like they’ve got it all figured out. When you really have it figured out, regardless of win-loss, it always comes back to that work.”

Amarion Dickerson posted season highs of 19 points and 13 rebounds to help Robert Morris stay unbeaten since opening the season with a pair of road losses against West Virginia and Delaware.

D.J. Smith added 14 points and and Alvaro Folgueiras scored 10 for the Colonials, who last won six games in a row during the 2019-20 season, the Colonials’ final year in the Northeast Conference before joining the Horizon League.

“We got some huge lifts from Amarion,” Toole said. “In that second half, he seemed to be everywhere.”

The 6-foot-7 Dickerson, a junior who was the nation’s top junior college shot-blocker last season at Mineral Area (Mo.) College, converted 7 of 9 shots and added four assists and two blocks to go with his first double-double at Robert Morris.

Meanwhile, junior guard Josh Omojafo, who is in his first season at Robert Morris, scored nine points to go over 1,000 for his career (1,003).

Omojafo, who leads RMU in scoring (11.5 ppg.), previously played two seasons at Division II Gannon, where last season he ranked second in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (20.0 ppg.).

Canisius (0-8) got 18 points from Dylan Godfrey, 11 from Anthony Benard and 10 from Paul McMillan IV.

Robert Morris turned a two-point deficit into a 10-point lead at the onset of the second half, at one point outscoring Canisius 13-3 during a span of 3 minutes, 6 seconds, fueled by an 8-0 run that put the Colonials in front, 49-39.

“If you were watching the ball movement in our practice (Tuesday) compared to the ball movement in the first half, you would’ve asked if there were two different teams out there,” Toole said. “At some point, you’ve got to start to trust that moving the ball is going to be the better alternative than some of the plays we made in the first half, offensively. That’s why it was such a grind in the first half.

“In the second half, we were able to move it better.”

And score a bit more, as RMU erased a 33-31 deficit with a 41-31 second-half advantage.

Canisius rallied to close within 54-52 on a basket by Cam Palesse with 6:55 remaining, though Robert Morris never lost the lead, keeping the Golden Griffins winless under first-year coach Jim Christian, a former Pitt and St. Francis (Pa.) assistant.

Christian, who was part of former coach Ralph Willard’s teams at Pitt from 1996-99, is on his fifth stop as a head coach. He previously led programs at Kent State, TCU, Ohio and Boston College.

“Coach Christian knows what he’s doing. He’s an excellent coach,” Toole said. “We knew they would come in with a great game plan, and they were kind of able to dictate the tempo of the game, which is conducive to them. But down the stretch in that game, we were able to make enough plays to sneak out of there with a win.”

So, not to worry, coach. Just try to enjoy the turkey.

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