Robert Morris (6-5) were once on a six-game winning streak but following Sunday’s loss to Purdue Fort Wayne (6-4), the Colonials are now in the midst of a three-game losing streak. The Colonials managed to stick with the Mastodons for a majority of the game but could not pull off the road win as they fell, 82-77.
The Colonials (No. 258) missed a confidence-boosting opportunity against the Mastodons. Purdue Fort Wayne debuted inside of the NET top-100 and sat right outside of that mark, at No. 113, when the team’s opened play on Sunday.
After an early three-pointer from Kam Woods made the score 7-5 in favor of the Colonials, the Mastodons went on a 10-2 run to re-claim the lead. That is when first-half leading-scorer Alvaro Folgueiras woke up on offense. He made two of the next three baskets with both of them being triples. These threes gave the Colonials a 17-15 lead with 11 minutes to go in the first half.
Folgueiras finished the game as the Colonials leading scorer with 23 points on 8-of-11 field goal shooting and 4-of-5 three-point shooting.
Maximus Nelson made back-to-back three-pointers for the Mastodons to answer. This was the story of the first half, both teams traded buckets over the next ten minutes as the Mastodons took a small, 39-35, lead into halftime.
The Colonials managed to slightly out-shoot the Mastodons in the first half, 44.1% compared to 43.3%, but lost the free-three shooting battle by a big margin. The Mastodons made 9-of-12 attempts from the charity stripe in the first half while the Colonials ended the period with just one attempt.
After trading buckets the start the second half, the Colonials’ deficit grew to seven but used a 6-0 run to crawl right back into it once again. The run stopped on another pair of free throws from Jalen Jackson who shot 12 free-throws in the game, making 11 of them.
The Colonials actually took a one-point lead following the free throws from Jackson as Amarion Dickerson made a jumper and sunk a pair of free throws himself. That lead was short lived though as the Mastodons and the Colonials began to trade the lead over the next few minutes.
With the score at 59-58 in favor of the Mastodons, Jackson made a mid-range jumper and then sunk another pair of free throws to finish off a 9-1 run. This run by the Mastodons opened up an 8-point lead with five minutes left to go in the game.
Jackson ended the game as the Mastodons leading scorer with 23 points on an impressive 6-of-7 shooting afternoon. He added six rebounds and four assists in the victory.
The Colonials pulled back within four later in the half but then Nelson hit free throws to push the Mastodons lead back to eight with under two minutes to go.
The Colonials answered again with a triple from Ryan Prather Jr. to get back within five at the 1:33 mark of the second half.
Following Prather’s triple, the Colonials and Prather got another chance to hit a three to pull even closer but the attempt missed and the Colonials’ chances of pulling off the road win came to a close.
The Colonials received 19 points from Woods and another 14 from Prather off of the bench in the loss. This was the first game since Woods’ return that he started which forced Prather to the bench.
Aside from Jackson’s twenty-point game, the Mastodons had four other players record double-figure games. Corey Hadnot II finished with 13 points off of the bench while starters Rasheed Bello had 12 and Maximus Nelson and Eric Mulder each had 10.
Now on a three-game losing streak, the Colonials get eight days of rest to prep for their next test which is a showdown at the UPMC Events Center with the Towson Tigers.
