Andy Toole became the winningest coach in Robert Morris history on Thursday night, as his Colonials came from behind to beat St. Francis Brooklyn, 52-49, giving Toole 158 carrier victories.
Toole passed former Robert Morris coach Jarrett Durham, who led the Colonials from 1984 to 1996. It’s taken Toole just eight and a half seasons to best that mark.
“It was awesome,” Toole said. “I told them in the locker room how proud of them I was because of their ability to continue to play even though things weren’t going well for us offensively. So many teams, so many times when things aren’t going well offensively, they tend to shut it down. We seemed to dig in harder. As a coach, those are the types of efforts you want to see from your team, regardless of score.”
With the win, Robert Morris improved to 3-0 in Northeast Conference play to sit atop the conference standings and evened its overall record at 8-8 on the season.
Both teams shot in the 30’s, with RMU at 31.1 percent on the night and the Terriers at 39.1. The Colonials were an anemic 2 for 14 from 3-points range, but fared better at the charity stripe, where they converted 12 of 15, including two from Charles Bain with four seconds remaining to push the Colonials’ advantage from one point to three.
Robert Morris trailed, 25-18 at the half, but started the second period on a 10-2 run over the first seven minutes to take a 28-27 lead. That was short-lived as a Jalen Jordan 3-pointer gave St. Francis the advantage on the following possession and the Terriers held serve until Jon Williams’ layup with 1:05 to play gave the Colonials the lead for good.
Yannis Mendy and Malik Petteway each had 13 points to lead RMU. Mendy also had a team-high nine rebounds while Petteway had three blocks and four steals.
Jordan had a game-high 16 points to lead the Terriers, who fell to 9-7 and 1-2 in NEC play.
Robert Morris will stay in New York, where they’ll face LIU Brooklyn on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. That game will be broadcast on ESPN Radio Pittsburgh.
