PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Cinderella beckoned.

She flirted with Robert Morris for two hours, filling the Colonials' heads with dreams of sports immortality, beguiling them with the prospect of joining a small list of teams that have pulled off the monumental upset.

The Colonials had a chance to ruin the run of a national powerhouse and become one of those teams that is too small, too slow and too outmatched to win, but did it anyway.

But instead of happily ever after, there was a clank off the back of a rim and a crushing defeat in place of a program-changing victory.

No. 15 seed Robert Morris led by eight points with four minutes left, but could not fend off No. 2 seed Villanova, losing, 73-70, in overtime in the first round of the NCAA tournament Thursday afternoon at the Dunkin' Donuts Center.

It would have been a signature win for a Robert Morris program that, while the most successful team historically in the Northeast Conference, is invisible to even the most passionate college basketball fans.

"To be able to say that you're the fifth team ever in the NCAA tournament to be a 15 to beat a 2, it would mean everything," said associate head coach Andy Toole. "As hard as you push these guys and as much as we drive them, for them to be able to walk out knowing that, it would mean everything.

"I mean everything -- for our team, our program, our school."

Instead, they join an endless list of underdogs who scared, but could not spoil, one of the nation's elite.

"I'm just hurt," said Robert Morris senior guard Mezie Nwigwe, whose last-second 3-point shot to tie the game hit off the rim. "We gave it all we had. We battled, we felt we did everything we could. But we just couldn't finish it off."

Only four teams seeded No. 15 have beaten a No. 2 in the history of the NCAA tournament, which expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

"We would have been on the list," Colonials coach Mike Rice said. "It would have been great to be on that list. But you know what, I can't worry about it. All I can ask for is what I got today, and that's every ounce of energy and everything they had."

And no NEC team has ever won a first-round NCAA tournament game.

The Colonials were 181/2-point underdogs but led the majority of the game against the Wildcats, who advanced to the Final Four last season.

Freshman guard Karon Abraham scored 23 points -- a game high -- and was a fitting star for the outmatched Colonials.

Listed as a 5-foot-9, 150-pound guard, who Rice admits is a couple inches and at least a dozen pounds smaller, Abraham was ignored by all major programs because of his size.

"They're small guys," said Abraham's dad, Clarence Abraham, who was watching in the stands, "but they play with all the heart in the world."

His son hit a 3-pointer in overtime that pulled the Colonials within one point with 10.9 seconds remaining.

Villanova guard Scottie Reynolds, who scored 15 of his 20 points from the free-throw line, sank two free throws with 9.1 seconds left, setting up Nwigwe's last-second prayer.

A heartbroken Robert Morris team left the court to a standing ovation, even from Villanova's fans.

"That respect is going to take us a long way," said assistant coach Jimmy Martelli. "Hopefully it takes Robert Morris as a university even a step further."

Nwigwe and a red-eyed Dallas Green, both seniors, took comfort in that -- believing they had left the program in better shape than when they found it.

"Every time somebody fills out a bracket anywhere in this country, they've got to recognize we're there," said athletic director Craig Coleman. "But this year, with the great success that we had in this game, falling very, very short, it just makes it all the more obvious to people that we're here and we mean business."

No, the Colonials did not join the small list of schools that made the impossible possible. But they took the program to a place it has never been before -- one or two plays away from legend.

"That's our goal -- to not have everybody say 'Robert Morris, who's that?' " Abraham said. "I think after this game, everyone's going to understand when you hear Robert Morris, they're going to say 'Oh, they're a problem.' "

First Published: March 19, 2010, 8:00 a.m.