Christmas time is just around the corner, but on Monday night, the Colgate Red Raiders figured out that the Bearcats’ style is probably better suited for Easter.

On the outside, the Bearcats seem solid and sweet: guards Richard Forbes and Mike Gordon combined for 32 points and five steals. But like an Easter egg, inside BU’s nice-looking shell reveals a much softer center, as the Raiders found out on Monday night in a 78-70 non-conference victory at Colgate.

“We just have an enigma right now on the front line,” said head coach Al Walker. “Our rebounding was atrocious. Our defense was very porous.”

For the game, 22 players got playing time, and all but one — BU’s starting power forward Ian Milne — grabbed at least one rebound. (Even 6-foot-3 guard Dwayne Jackson had a rebound in just two minutes of action.) Walker acknowledged a change in the game plan for tomorrow’s game against Rider.

“Ian is not going to be the go-to guy come Saturday,” Walker said. “The things that we’ve tried to do with Ian have not been successful to this point and time. No one feels more uncomfortable about his performance than Ian. He’s just found himself just losing his confidence.”

He added, “I do believe that Ian Milne is going to break out much sooner than later.”

Meanwhile, Milne’s starting frontcourt-mate Giovanni Olomo had three rebounds, but went scoreless, fouling out in just 12 minutes. Olomo has just three points on one field goal attempt this season (1-1, 100 percent), but Walker was very steadfast in defending his junior center.

“One of the things that the fans may not acknowledge is that Gio really, really is an excellent defender,” Walker said. “He’s not scoring the ball, [and] I think he can rebound it a little bit better … one of the reasons (he continues to start is that) he was so active and tough-minded on the defensive end.”

The Bearcats kept the game competitive in the first half with a big offensive contribution from Duane James, another big man in Walker’s five-man rotation. James had 10 points in the first half and finished with a career-best 18.

But Colgate pulled away in the second half on the back of senior guard Jon Simon, who had nine unanswered points in a span of 1:27 early in the second half to turn a four-point BU lead into a five-point deficit.

“That game was very important to Colgate … [Simon] played the kind of game that you hope your senior does when your team is on the brink of discomfort,” said Walker. “The young man was terrific.”

Forbes led the Bearcats with 19. Walker acknowledged that Monday’s starting lineup (Milne, Olomo, Steve Proctor, Troy Hailey and Gordon) is “in flux,” but there are no plans to include Forbes, who Walker described as “instant offense off the bench.”

Walker said he and the BU coaching staff discuss the lineup regularly.

“We have this discussion in the office on a daily basis: which [interior] guy can be productive on a consistent basis?” Walker said. “I just think it’s a maturation process that we have to go through.”

The game was the second for the Bearcats in three days, but Walker brushed off questions of fatigue, saying, “It might’ve been [a factor], but that would be a poor excuse. We have a lot of America East games where we play four America East games in eight freakin’ days, so we cant look at that and say we’re fatigued. We have to battle through that.”

The 3-2 start for the Bearcats is their best start since 2002-03, when they started 4-1.