After sweeping the Urban-Bennett Invitational, Robert Morris (5-2) traveled to upstate New York to put their four game winning streak on the line against the Cornell Big Red (3-2). The Colonials led wire-to-wire against the Ivy League’s top scoring offense thanks to a hot shooting night from the field and solid free throw contributions.
They shot 45% from the field and made 23-of-31 free throw attempts to overcome the Ivy League’s top scoring offense.
The Colonials offense started the game hot as Antallah Sandlin’El capped a 7-2 run off with a triple. This was the first minutes of action for Sandlin’El since the Colonials’ season-opener against West Virginia. He finished the game with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting.
The Big Red’s offense woke up after the first five minutes and brought the game back with one point but that was answered with another run by the Colonials which extended their lead to 6 points at the under-14 timeout. The run was fueled off of three-pointers by Amarion Dickerson and D.J. Smith.
Off of the timeout, the Colonials continued their hot shooting and saw their lead climb as high as 14 points, when they led the Big Red by the score of 36-22.
The teams traded buckets over the final five minutes of the first half and the Colonials carried an 11-point lead into the halftime intermission. The Colonials managed to take a double-digit lead into halftime due to shooting a 54% shooting half. Dickerson and Sandlin’El each had 11 first-half points.
Dickerson ended the game as the team’s second-leading scorer with 15 points.
Over the first 11 minutes of the second half, the Colonials continued their hot shooting and extended their lead to 15 points which had them in a comfortable position to grind out the clock on the high-scoring Big Red. Cornell cut the lead to as close as 4 points with just over 40 seconds left but never managed to catch all of the way back up to the Colonials.
Alvaro Folgueiras finished the game as the Colonials leading score with 19 points but also added a team-high 12 rebounds. The Colonials had six players finish with double-digit point totals including Josh Omojafo who ended with 12 points on a perfect 8-of-8 free throw night.
The Big Red were paced by Jake Fiegen who finished as the game’s leading scorer with 22 points on an impressive 70% shooting clip. Nazir Williams added 16 points in the loss for the Big Red.
The Colonials return home to the UPMC Events Center on Wednesday to host Canisius in another non-conference showdown.
