MOON TWP, Pa. — Robert Morris (2-2) played host to Stonehill (1-3) on the opening night of the Urban-Bennett Invitational. The Colonials managed to defend their home court due to the physical beat down that their trio of forwards, Amarion Dickerson, Josh Omojafo and Ismael Plet managed to give to the front court of Stonehill.
While Omojafo and Plet contributed in big ways, it was the play of Dickerson that vaulted the Colonials to their second win of the season. In the 63-51 victory over Stonehill, Dickerson set the school’s single-game record with seven blocks. Those came in addition to his 10 points and seven rebounds.
“His anticipation is crazy, his instincts are crazy and when you combine those two things with the athleticism he has, he can make a lot of bad possessions look good,” Robert Morris head coach Andy Toole told reporters after the game. “He erased three or four baskets in the course of the game. … When I watch games, I have a pretty wide lens, like he is not even in my picture then all of the sudden he comes out of nowhere and the ball is taken off of the backboard.”
The Colonials set the tone on the first scoring possession of the game as D.J. Smith lobbed a pass to Dickerson, who slammed it down to start the game.
After a pair of triples gave the Skyhawks an early 3-point lead, the Colonials answered with an 11-1 run that was headlined by another Smith to Dickerson lob.
Following the run, the Colonials began to settle into the flow of the game and used their size and athleticism to their advantage. That combo of power and speed allowed the Colonials to get to the free-throw line early-and-often. They finished the game shooting 29-of-39 from the charity stripe.
“When you have guys like Amarion, like Varo (Alvaro Folgueiras), even Ish (Ismael Plet), getting in there and trying to make offensive rebounds, getting yourself a second chance opportunity, that is huge,” Toole said. “With that, we felt like we could get the opportunity to get into the paint and draw some fouls. I didn’t know that it would become our primary source of offense but it was kind of how the game shook out so we continued with it.”
The Skyhawks battled back before the halftime intermission and cut a 9-point deficit to just 4 points when the buzzer sounded. They found a spark of offense in Josh Morgan who scored 6 of the last 9 Skyhawks first-half points. The Colonials carried a 29-25 lead into halftime.
The Colonials came out of the locker room with the same offensive game plan as the first half, attack the basket and get to the foul line. After a pair of free throws from each Omojafo and Ryan Prather, the Colonials saw their lead jump to as many as 10 points thanks to Plet scoring 9 straight points for the Colonials.
Omofajo led all Colonials with 15 points as he made all nine of his free-throw attempts. Plet finished the game with 11 points, six rebounds and a blocked shot.
“I thought that in the second half we had much better flow with how the ball was going side-to-side, how we could stack a couple different actions together to try to create an advantage,” Toole said about the start of the second half. “Ish got going a little bit, that was a huge flurry for us where he was able to get some of those baskets. … That is certainly something that we have been looking for from him and I was happy that he was able to do that for us tonight.”
Just as it looked like the Colonials would finally pull away, the Skyhawks got two big-time three-pointers from Morgan and Todd Brogna to pull them back within two possessions with under eight minutes left in the game.
Brogna finished as the Skyhawks leading scorer and rebounder with 17 points and nine rebounds. His 17 points came on an efficient 3-of-4 three-point shooting night.
The Colonials, nursing a lead, stayed with their bread and butter which was their driving ability and their free-throw shooting. This allowed the Colonials to end the game on an 8-2 run that eclipsed the final four-and-half minutes of game and close the door on the Skyhawks chances.
Robert Morris is back in action tomorrow night as they host Lindenwood in their second of three games in the Urban-Bennett Invitational.
