Any team that plans on entering the painted area against Robert Morris must deal with two of the most active forwards in the Horizon League.
While they may be on two ends of the spectrum with one being a fifth-year player and the other only a sophomore, the duo of Markeese Hastings and Stephaun Walker has become a notable staple in the conference.
A bit undersized – both standing at 6-foot-7 – the power forward-center combo doesn’t let that detract them from having a major impact on any given night.
In a critical conference home win against a Milwaukee team that beat the Colonials in late December, Hastings and Walker grabbed an identical nine rebounds each.
Robert Morris outrebounded the Panthers 42-31 as the Colonials pulled down some key boards late in the game.
“Every one of those rebounds is critical,” head coach Andy Toole said. “That’s what we were saying down the stretch of the game if we can make them miss. We did a good job of being attentive.”
After falling to Green Bay on Thursday in overtime with Noah Reynolds dominating, the Colonials knew they needed to buckle down defensively and walk away with a victory under their belt.
“We let the one slip Thursday, and we really needed this one,” Walker said.
The Colonials were not going to let another game get away, and they knew it had to be won on the glass with a mob mentality.
“There were times where rebounds were all over the place and I see two, three other guys running into each other,” Hastings said. “At the end of the last game, there was a rebound that slipped our hands. Today, we had multiple guys with high number of rebounds.”
With a focus on rebounding, things didn’t get easier with another pure scorer in BJ Freeman stepping onto the RMU hardwood.
Freeman led Milwaukee’s attack with a pair of triples early on as the Panthers scored 16 points before the game even hit the first media timeout.
However, the Colonials made quick adjustments that countered the Panthers’ approach. Milwaukee did not near that scoring output in any other four-minute window the rest of the game. After shooting 6 of 8 (75 percent) from the floor in the first four minutes, the Panther put up a faint 14 of 51 (27.4 percent) the rest of the way.
“They had 16 points after the first media, and I didn’t think we were playing incredibly poorly, we just needed to tighten up some things on the defensive side,” Toole said.
After 15 points in the first half for Freeman, he was held to just six in the second half. Freeman, who also leads the Panthers in rebounding, had to be watched closely and Walker was up for the task.
“Steph was really active in his ability to wall-up and use his size to make them miss,” Toole said.
As Robert Morris put the clamps on Milwaukee for a majority of the game, the Colonials turned in one of their best defensive performances by holding the Panthers to 60 points, which is the second-lowest point total from a Division-I opponent against RMU this season.
“It was one of our most consistent defensive efforts of the year from start to finish,” Toole said. “We had a lot of urgency. It was good to see them come out and be engaged on the defensive side of the floor as much as they were for the entire game.”
As difficult as it was to go up and come down with a rebound with Hastings and Walker in the area, it was even harder to stop them from scoring.
Hastings led the Colonials with another high-scoring output, recording 21 points on an efficient 9 of 12 from the floor. He leads all Colonials with 15.8 points per night.
As dangerous as Hastings is in the paint, he has started to lengthen his shot, hitting five threes in the last two contests.
“My preparation is always the same, but today I was just more locked in. I felt like we needed this one even more,” Hastings said about his shooting.
Walker added 16 points as the second-leading scorer against the Panthers with a variety of moves in the low post, while also draining his own two treys.
The center continues to develop in his second season with the Colonials, averaging 11.1 points per game on 52 percent shooting from the field.
What helps both Hastings and Walker despite being a tad smaller than your typical frontcourt is their athleticism and quickness, which makes it that much harder to defend the two attacking the rim.
Running offensive sets can be easy with them as their pick-and-roll game is hard to matchup against. They have also proven that they can pop out and sink a 3-pointer from time to time.
That’s why as the season winds down, the frontcourt duo will be so valuable as they look to will the Colonials into a postseason run.
