MOON TWP, Pa. — The Robert Morris men’s basketball team entered the week staring down two important Horizon League matchups against teams that are slotted above them in the conference standings. To start the week, the Colonials (10-7, 2-4 HL) welcomed Cleveland St. (11-6, 5-1 HL), a team that have beaten them in 10 straight games, into the UPMC Events Center for the first of the two pivotal home games this week.
The Vikings managed to continue their winning ways against the Colonials by playing with a different level of physicality in the second half of the game. The Colonials led by one at the halftime intermission but the Vikings turned defense into offense as they opened the second half on a 25-7 run that proved to be too much for the Colonials to handle as the Vikings triumphed by the score of 80-69.
“Obviously credit to Cleveland St., they do a great job of just disrupting everything you do on offense and defense,” Robert Morris head coach Andy Toole said following the game. “We fell victim to that tonight. They were the more aggressive team, they were the more connected team and came out in that second half and really threw some haymakers and we weren’t able to stand up to those.”
The early portion of the first half was a game of runs as each team answered the other’s run with one of their own. The Colonials opened up a quick 4-0 lead behind two layups from Kam Woods but that was answered with a 7-0 run from the Vikings that was highlighted by back-to-back slams from Reece Robinson.
The Vikings level of physicality proved to be too much for the Colonials as multiple of the top contributors ran into foul trouble early due to the force that Cleveland St. was playing with. This resulted in many bench players that Toole did not necessarily think he would have to rely on having to play. Fortunately for the Colonials, two of them provided a spark in the first half.
The Colonials managed to re-gain the lead after some strong minutes from Ismael Plet resulted in three layups from the senior. The lead was short lived as the Vikings responded with another 6-0 run.
The Colonials kept fighting and received some quality buckets from another bench player, Dilen Miller. Robert Morris started the game 0-of-5 from behind the arc before Miller knocked down their first one and converted it into a 4-point play on an and-one. This three gave the Colonials a 33-31 lead just after the final media stoppage of the half.
Just like the rest of the half, the Vikings answered and eventually took the lead with under 20 seconds remaining in the half but the Colonials went up one as Woods knocked in the team’s second triple of the half on a shot that beat the halftime buzzer.
Unfortunately for the Colonials, Plet and Miller petered out in the second half as they combined for just 2 points.
“The problem is it would be great if we knew we could consistently get stuff from those guys,” Toole said of his role players. “We just don’t always know what we will get from those guys. Obviously, Ish was able to provide some offense in and around the basket but on the defensive side is where you get a little more concerned about some of those guys coming off of the bench.”
The second half went totally opposite as the first as only one team really managed to create runs for themselves. The Vikings opened the half up on a 25-7 run where the Colonials went 4:56 without scoring a single point.
Early in the second half, the Vikings physical nature really showed, especially on defense, as they forced multiple Colonial possessions to end in late shots that had no chance of going in and even a few shot-clock violations.
“You just have to have such a level of toughness to compete against them,” Toole said following the game. “We show flashes [of it] but we don’t show consistency [of it]. They raised their level and instead of us raising our level to match it we wanted to get foul calls, wanted to get bail outs or we wanted to get whatever and that is not a recipe for success against those guys.”
This run gave the Vikings a lead of 62-45 and it looked all but over for the Colonials but they managed one more push. Trailing by 20 points, the Colonials’ three-ball finally started falling as they made four in quick succession to cut their deficit to just 10 points when the score became 71-61.
The Vikings stopped the run with a three from Je’Shawn Stevenson which kept the Colonials deficit in double-digits. The Colonials got it back to a 10-point game on a three from Josh Omojafo and then cut it to single-digits on a pair of free throws from Woods.
Robert Morris’ run turned out to be too-little, too-late as the Vikings capped off their double-digit win on a dunk from Dylan Arnett.
The Colonials were paced by Woods’ game-high 18 points in the loss to the Vikings. Omojafo added 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting while usual top scorers, Amarion Dickerson and Alvaro Folgueiras, were limited due to early foul trouble. Plet added 12 points in place of Folgueiras as he fouled out in the second half.
The Vikings were led by Arnett’s team-high 16 points as he shot 6-of-10 from the field which included multiple big-time dunks. Stevenson finished as the Vikings second-leading scorer with 14 points while Thaj Staveskie added 13 on 3-of-5 three-point shooting.
The Colonials will cap off their week with a home showdown against Wright St. which is another team that is above them in the Horizon League standings. The Colonials and the Raiders will tip-off on 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.
