The Robert Morris Colonials (0-1, 0-0 Horizon) tipped their season off on the road against the West Virginia Mountaineers (1-0, 0-0 Big-12) on Monday night. After allowing a 30-2 run to start the game, the Colonials could not catch back up to their Power-4 opponent and were blown out, 87-59.
The game marked the start of the Darian DeVries era in West Virginia who was hired this offseason after leading Drake to six straight 20-win seasons. Upon his hire, DeVries recruited his son, Tucker, from Drake to follow him to West Virginia. Tucker scored a game-high 18 points, including 14 first-half points in the season-opening win over the Colonials.
DeVries scored the first eight points of the game on two three-pointers and an electrifying dunk. The Mountaineers jumped out to a 21-0 lead and then eventually lead 30-2 before the Colonials offense finally started to wake up.
Bowling Green-transfer DJ Smith scored the first Colonials points on a 15-foot jump shot just over 5 minutes into the game. The Colonials went on a 9-0 run following the Mountaineers’ blitzing start and cut the score to 30-11 at the under-eight timeout.
Over the final 11 minutes of the first half, the Colonials outscored the Mountaineers 24-16 to make the score 46-26 as the team’s headed into halftime.
The Colonials trailed big after one half due to the Mountaineers’ elite first-half shooting clinic. In the first half, the Mountaineers shot 17-for-32 (53.1%) from the field and 9-for-21 from three (42.9%). In comparison, the Colonials shot just 2-for-11 (18.2%) from three-point range in the first half.
Over the final 20 minutes of the game, the Mountaineers continued to outpace the Colonials on the offensive side of the ball. The Mountaineers jumped out to a 28-point lead midway through the second half after starting the half on a 29-19 run. The Mountaineers maintained that margin of score throughout the rest of the game and downed the Colonials by 28 points.
Andy Toole’s Robert Morris squad was led by Josh Omojafo who led all Colonials scorers with 13 points in the loss. Ismael Plet and Smith each scored eight points for the Colonials on Monday.
On top of DeVries’ game-high 18 points, the Mountaineers had four other scores reach double-digits. Javon Small added 15 points, Toby Okani scored 13, Jonathan Powell 11 and KJ Tenner 10.
Robert Morris will stay on the road for their next game as they will take on Delaware on Thursday night in the team’s second game of the season.
