Folgueiras Leads Robert Morris to First 20-Win Season in Five Years

MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. – Alvaro Folgueiras scored a team-high 22 points (seven rebounds, four assists and three steals) to lead Robert Morris (20-8, HL 12-5) past Purdue Fort Wayne (18-10, HL 11-6) 76-69 at the UPMC Events Center on Saturday.

Amarion Dickerson scored 16 points (7-for-11), and Kam Woods contributed 12 as the Colonials won their fourth straight game.

Rasheed Bello (11-for-17) led a trio of double-digit scorers for Purdue Fort Wayne with 25. The Mastodons have now lost two straight games.

Overall, Robert Morris shot 54.7% from the field and 35.3% from 3. Purdue-Fort Wayne shot 44.8% from the field and 30.4% from deep.

With the win, the Colonials have broken away from the three-way tie for second place in the Horizon League. This season is their first 20-win season since 2019.

FIRST HALF

Purdue Fort Wayne jumped out to an early 8-2 lead, but it would be outscored 38-26 the rest of the half. Robert Morris used a 27-9 run over 10 minutes to secure a double-digit lead by the intermission. Amarion Dickerson (14 points) and Alvaro Folgueiras (12 points) combined for 26 of the Colonials’ 40 points.

SECOND HALF

Purdue Fort Wayne used a 16-11 scoring advantage to pull within four (51-47) to start the second half. But a 9-0 Robert Morris run – capped off by a DJ Smith theft and layup – put the Colonials back up by 13. The Mastodons pulled back to within three, but late free throws by Ryan Prather Jr. (nine points) and Folgueiras iced the game.

TURNING POINT

After Purdue Fort Wayne held a 14-13 lead, Robert Morris surged past the Mastodons on the back of a 24-9 run. The Colonials led the rest of the way.

TAKEAWAYS

Purdue Fort Wayne’s Bello (15.9) and Jalen Jackson (19.4) entered Saturday as two of the top five scorers in the Horizon League. While Bello had an efficient outing (25 points on 11-for-17 shooting), Jackson was held to 12 points (5-of-18) and had seven turnovers.

Andrew Toole: “I thought our defense was the story … Bello and Jackson are two of the only returning all-league players in the league, so we knew that they were going to come out aggressively … They live when you get into rotation … And I thought our guys did a good job of not always allowing some of that penetration that led to rotation.”

Robert Morris’ frontcourt duo of Folgueiras and Dickerson accounted for nearly a quarter of the Colonials’ offensive production (22.3% of scoring). Over this four-game winning streak, the two big men are averaging a combined 36.25 points per game.

Folgueiras on developing next to Dickerson: “I think you improve more playing with really good players, really smart players, really physical players. I think we have all of that … ‘Mar (Dickerson) is an example of that, but I think all of our players that came this year are really smart and really good. So my growth is because of my work, but because of the quality and the competitiveness of the team.”

After a tough four-year stretch, the Colonials have won 20 games for the sixth time under the guidance of Toole.

Toole: “I’m just excited for our guys … They’ve put in a lot of hard work. They believed that we could become a good team. They’ve worked to get us to the level where we’re a competitive team, and have chances to win against a lot of teams in our league … When everything’s said and done maybe look back and you feel a sense of pride, but you’re too involved in what’s going on on a day to day basis right now to kind of have any of those sentimental thoughts.”