MOON TWP, Pa. — Robert Morris (6-2) welcomed win-less Canisius (0-8) into the UPMC Events Center for a Wednesday afternoon clash and for a majority of the game, it looked as if the Colonials could end up as the first victims of the season for the Golden Griffins.
The Colonials trailed by two at halftime but came out of the the intermission and looked like a new team on the offensive side of the ball. Still, the Golden Griffins stuck around until the final few seconds before a pair of D.J. Smith free throws with 15 seconds left iced the game. The Colonials’ 72-64 victory over the Golden Griffins marked their sixth consecutive victory after starting the season 0-2.
“It’s the ultimate battle from a coaching perspective,” Robert Morris head coach Andy Toole said about playing a win-less team. “Everybody wants to be a professional but being professional means that you play to a standard, prepare the same way regardless of opponent but human nature tells you to chill. Every single day leading up to this game that was the pre-practice message.”
The Colonials grabbed a lead on two Josh Omojafo free throws to start the game but quickly fell behind the Golden Griffins. After an Evan van der Plas three-pointer, Dylan Godfrey made two deep two-pointers to open up a 5-point advantage.
The Colonials managed to tie the game at seven but then went on a scoreless streak that lasted just under five minutes of game time. Luckily, the Golden Griffins also went cold from the field during that stretch as both teams combined to shoot 1-of-11 from the field in that time span.
The two teams then traded buckets over the next several minutes but the Golden Griffins re-extended their lead to five where it hovered until Canisius head coach Jim Christian received a technical foul. The foul happened in the midst of a 6-0 run for the Colonials where they re-gained the lead for the first time since the 19:28 mark.
After surrendering the lead, the Golden Griffins continued their hot shooting and managed to snag the advantage back just before the halftime buzzer on an Anthony Bernard three which gave them a 33-31 lead.
“I thought the problem in the first half goes back to the immaturity where the ball is not moving as freely,” Toole said. “If you were to watch our ball movement in our practice yesterday compared to the ball movement in the first half, you would have asked if there were two different teams out there.”
The Colonials came out of the intermission on fire as they made 4-of-5 field goals to start the second half including three-pointers by Alvaro Folgueiras and Omojafo. Those back-to-back triples matched the team’s first-half output from that range.
“I am glad that in the second half (of games) we have been able to adjust a little bit, we’ve been able to find some of those opportunities,” Toole said. “Mar (Dickerson) had an unbelievable pass to Ryan (Prather) for a three, Varo (Folgueiras) had an unbelievable pass for a three, we had great execution for Dilen’s three. That is where our threes have to come from. … We’ve got to work together to find threes. We’ve got to make enough threes to hold people and keep people honest but they might not come right off of the bat and you got to trust that if I give it up, I am going to get it back.”
After the back-to-back three for Robert Morris, the Golden Griffins answered back on a Tana Kopa step-back to make the score 41-39. From that point, the Colonials went on a 8-0 run that was highlighted by an and-one by Amarion Dickerson.
Dickerson ended the game as the Colonials leading scorer with 19 points. He also led the team in rebounds (13), assists (4) and blocks (2) in the victory.
The Golden Griffins finally stopped the bleeding once their deficit hit 10 points on a Godfrey stop-and-pop. The Golden Griffins used this to start an 11-4 scoring run of their own to cut the Colonials lead to just four at the under-8 timeout.
Following the media timeout, the two squads traded buckets until the next media timeout. Just before the under-4 timeout, Ryan Prather Jr. came up with a big-time triple that pushed the Colonials lead back to 6 points.
Following Prather’s triple, the two teams went score less for the next three minutes until Bernard’s slashing layup made the score 65-61 with under a minute to play. Then, Godfrey was fouled on their next possession but hit just one of the free throws, making it a 3-point game.
Godfrey went down as the Golden Griffins leading scorer with 18 points on 8-of-16 shooting. The Golden Griffins leading scorer coming into the game, Paul McMillan was held to just 10 points on a 3-of-16 evening.
Down three, the Golden Griffins needed to foul but they sent Smith to the line on consecutive possessions who nailed both of his attempts each time and closed the door on Canisius’ chances of the upset.
Smith ended the game as the Colonials second-leading scorer with 14 points on 2-of-3 shooting from behind the arc and a perfect 6-of-6 from the charity stripe. Folgueiras ended the game with 10 points and six rebounds for the Colonials. The Colonials had three players finish in double-figures and two more with 9 points.
The Colonials next action will come on Saturday afternoon when they take on the Ohio Bobcats on the road on Saturday afternoon. Following that game, the Colonials open up Horizon League play against Youngstown St. next week.
