After playing three straight overtime games coming into Saturday’s contest against Oakland, the Robert Morris Colonials probably wanted nothing to do with an extra period against the Golden Grizzlies.
When the Colonials fell behind by 19 points in the first half, just getting to overtime would have been a massive victory.
RMU fought to get as close to five points down, but could not complete the comeback, dropping the second game of the weekend set, 86-81 to Oakland.
The Colonials used a 15-4 run late in the first half to cut the Oakland lead to single digits going ahead of the break. The Grizzlies pushed the lead back to as many as 12 points in the second half before RMU again came forward with a late push.
Jon Williams kept bringing the Colonials back with strong shooting from beyond the arc, as he shot 7 0f 10, all from 3-point range for a career-high 22 points. Williams also served up six assists.
But his final opportunity to make it a one-possession game with under 10 seconds to go went off the iron, and an Oakland rebounds secured the victory for the Grizzlies.
As a team, RMU shot 55% (11 of 20) from 3-point range, with Charles Bain (1 for 4), Dante Treacy (2 for 3) and Trayden Williams (1 for 2) all also converting from long range. Treacy finished with 16 points and Bain added 12.
The Colonials’s second-half run was hampered by foul trouble, with Kam Farris, Khalil Spear and Cam Wilbon all earning four fouls. They also struggled to hang on to the basketball, as RMU had 16 turnovers.
“We made too many mistakes and had too many self-inflicted wounds to be able to come back and win the game,” RMU head coach Andy Toole said. “The fight is there. The guys are trying to work. There’s just too many systematic breakdowns, especially on the defensive side to be able to win the game.”
For Oakland (9-16, 9-9 Horizon), Rashad Williams was every bit the equal to RMU’s Jon Williams, making 7 of 13 from 3-point range as part of his game-high 23 points. Daniel Oladapo and Micah Parrish had 19 and 18 points for the Grizzlies, which salvaged a split on the weekend trip to Pittsburgh.
“We tired to play, maybe, their game, a little bit of up-and-down offensive game, which they’re better than us at,” Toole said.
Robert Morris (4-12, 3-10 Horizon) has now lost eight of its last nine and has not won consecutive games all season. The Colonials will wrap their regular season with a two-game trip to Detroit Mercy that starts with a 6 p.m. tipoff on Friday, Feb. 19.
