Amarion Dickerson Breaks Own School Record as Robert Morris Gets Revenge Against Detroit Mercy

MOON TWP, Pa. — Detroit Mercy (8-17, 4-10 HL) came to Moon Township on Wednesday in seek of a season sweep of Robert Morris (17-8, 9-5 HL) but the Colonials made sure to not let that happen as they used dominate second half to down the Titans by the score of 71-56.

The Colonials led the Titans by the score of 53-50 with 8:43 left in the game but used an 18-3 run over the remainder of the game to pull away and secure the double-digit win. The Colonials left with the short-handed win due to three key separators.

Robert Morris was without one of their starting guards, Josh Omojafo, as he left the Colonials’ last game with an injury. This put pressure on the rest of the Colonials to step up and fill the void in his absence. The Colonials managed to do just that through the play of Ryan Prather Jr. who scored 15 points on 4-of-6 three-point attempts.

“He was huge today,” Robert Morris head coach Andy Toole said about Prather’s performance against Detroit Mercy. “They were big shots that he hit. We were kind of trying to find that separation, trying to get some offensive flow going and I think he hit one in that first half that gave us breathing room and then obviously his threes in the second half helped us keep the lead.”

Another key player in the Colonials’ win over the Titans on Wednesday night was Amarion Dickerson who broke his own single-game program record for blocks as he rejected eight of the Titans’ shot attempts. Dickerson originally broke Robert Morris’ record in their win over Stonehill on Nov. 14, 2024.

“I still, every once in a while, go ‘how did he get to that,'” Toole said about Dickerson’s shot blocking ability. “There will be times where I go back and watch the game or I will watch practice and think a guy has got a layup and out of nowhere he just jumps on your screen. It’s incredible, his timing and ability to get off of the ground. He saved a couple of baskets that were critical [tonight].”

The last thing that helped the Colonials pick up the home win over the Titans was the team effort to limit the Titans’ leading scorer, Orlando Lovejoy, who went off for 32 points in the first meeting.

While he still led all Titans’ scorers with 17 points in Wednesday’s loss, Lovejoy’s ability to takeover the game was denied behind the defensive efforts of Kam Woods and D.J. Smith who handled primary defensive duties on the star guard.

“He is hard to guard, man,” Toole said about Lovejoy. “Even the 17 that he got, there is three or four shots that you are almost, not happy that he is shooting, but you are thinking like ‘okay, if we are forcing this guy into a tough two at the end of a shot clock, it is a pretty good defensive possession.’ He makes it at such a high rate that it is tough .”

The Titans quickly scored the game’s first points on a turnaround jumper from Lovejoy but then the scoring went quiet for a couple of minutes. The game’s next points came over three minutes in when Woods delivered on a jumper of his own to tie things up at two.

The Colonials then claimed the lead on a corner three from Alvaro Folgueiras who led all Colonial scorers in the win with 16 points.

After being tied at seven a piece at the first media stoppage, the Titans jumped out to a lead of four after TJ Nadeau nailed the first triple of the game. The Titans maintained a small lead over the next few minutes before the Colonials jumped back ahead 16-15 on a dunk from Ismael Plet.

The Colonials looked as if they would build a decent lead before halftime but the Titans pulled back within one on Nadeau’s second triple of the half. Those would be the only two three-pointers from the Titans in the half.

The Colonials did jump back ahead by four before the intermission on a corner three from Prather. Robert Morris entered halftime with a 27-23 lead after a low-scoring first half.

The two teams came out of the break with a different type of moxie to them as over the first few minutes of the second half, the game turned into a three-point contest. Robert Morris made their first five field goal attempts of the second half with four of them coming from behind the arc.

The Titans made their first three triples of the half but just four of their first seven field goals which allowed the Colonials to extend their lead to seven.

Following the outburst from the Colonials, the game looked to be swaying in favor of Robert Morris but the Titans quickly tied things back up at 41 following a 7-0 run.

Then, just before the halfway mark of the half, Prather went on a personal 9-0 run which included two of his triples and three free throws after being fouled on a third attempt. His run gave the Colonials their biggest lead of the night to that point at eight but just as they did before, the Titans rallied back.

The Titans cut the deficit to just three following a pair of free throws from Chase Kuiper but then they would go scoreless for the next 3:52 which allowed the Colonials to deliver the kill shot.

The Colonials outscored the Titans 16-4 over the final eight minutes of the game to pull away and claim their ninth Horizon League victory of the season.

The win over Detroit Mercy gave Robert Morris outright possession of fourth place in the Horizon League with just six games to go. The next challenge on the docket for the Colonials is a road trip to Northern Kentucky. The Colonials beat the Norse in triple overtime earlier this season.