Robert Morris Takeaways: Guards Nearly Outscore Entire Wright St. Team in Quarterfinal Win

MOON TWP, Pa. — Robert Morris continued their dance on Thursday after taking down the eight-seeded Wright State Raiders by a score of 83-62 in the Horizon League quarterfinal round. Despite trailing by 10 points at the first-half under-12 media timeout, the Colonials flipped the game on its head and outscored the Raiders 75-44 over the remainder of the game to advance to the league’s semifinals in Indianapolis.

“I just thought our urgency and energy defensively, they were they were so comfortable in those first five, six minutes of the game. I thought the last 12 we really disrupted their flow a little bit,” Robert Morris head coach Andy Toole said about what changed during the timeout. “
Then, I thought on the offensive side, we got some more movement. I thought we settled for a couple quick jumpers to start the game, guys are trying to feel it out a little bit, but I think once we kind of got the ball moving a little bit, we were able to have good balance.”

With sophomore forward Alvaro Folgueiras winning the league’s Player of the Year award and his running mate Amarion Dickerson being crowned the league’s Defensive Player of the Year, it is no surprise that the machine known as Robert Morris basketball is run through them.

Well, most of the time, at least. In Thursday’s win, four guards, Kam Woods, D.J. Smith, Josh Omojafo and Ryan Prather Jr. combined for 59 of the Colonials’ 83 points. In comparison, the Raiders combined to score just 62 points as a team.

“I think it’s just what we do all the time, you know, we share the ball, I think we get a lot of success from that,” Omojafo said after the game about the hot shooting night from the guard position. “As you can see, we have multiple players in double figures. I think that something that’s recurring on our team, I think that’s something that’s helped us with our success.”

While the guard group showed out, Folgueiras did post his 13th double-double of the season as he posted 12 points and 10 rebounds in 35 minutes of game time.

Folgueiras proved why he won the league’s most distinguished honor as he went toe-to-toe with one of the league’s best forwards in Wright State’s Brandon Noel. The Spaniard posted a plus-28 plus/minus when he was on the court on Thursday.

“I didn’t even love some of his engagement, which is some of the scary part,” Toole said about how good Folgueiras is even when he makes mistakes. “There was a couple times, I thought he could have been a little bit more active but his versatility, his ability to make shots, his ability to rebound the ball, his ability to play through him and find people … He’s a guy that was really, really locked in these last couple days of practice so I knew that he would have a strong performance.

In addition to hosting and winning its first ever home Horizon League “playoff” game, the Colonials also set a UPMC Events Center record for attendance. The reported number of spectators surpassed 4,000 and not one of them were quiet during the game.

The crowd gave the Colonials a true home-court advantage which is something that they were not accustomed to. Most of their games fielded just hundreds of in-person viewers. While the players fed off of the energy of the crowd, so did the coaches as Toole stated after the game how appreciative he was for the turnout and hopes it continues into next year.

“I thought that was an awesome environment for college basketball,” Toole told reporters after the game. “I was told it was an attendance record ,over 4,000 people in the building. Everybody was loud, everybody was there early. We’d love it to be like that all the time but it was awesome to have everybody come out and create an awesome home-court advantage. The students came out incredibly well. 
They were loud all night and obviously I think after the first five, six minutes of the game, I thought our performance kind of mirrored the energy in the building.”

Robert Morris is buzzing right now.

What an atmosphere. pic.twitter.com/NbdL1Md6r1

— George Michalowski (@MichalowskiCBB) March 7, 2025

Now, the Colonials travel to Indianapolis for a Monday night date with Oakland in the league’s semifinal round. The Colonials defeated the Golden Grizzlies in each of the two regular season meetings but they are no push overs.

The Golden Grizzlies are led by the all-time Horizon League win leader as a head coach, Greg Kampe. The Golden Grizzlies made the NCAA Tournament just last year and defeated three-seed Kentucky before taking the eventual Final Four bound NC State Wolfpack to the brink.

Now, the Colonials are in striking distance to try to replicate Oakland’s magical run from a year ago. Robert Morris is just two wins away from clinching a berth to its first NCAA Tournament since 2019-20 season when they won the NEC Tournament.

While that is the end goal that nobody says they are thinking about, it is becoming more of a real possibility with each day. With the quarterfinal win over Wright State being the biggest win for the Colonials since that 2020 season, Toole said there is a balance of celebrating a win like Thursday’s win and turning the page to move onto their next opponent.

“We’ll move on quickly. You know, we’ll let these guys celebrate a little bit, but we’ll move on quickly because we gotta get ready, we gotta be prepared and we gotta be able to be making the best decisions we can make and be as informed as we can be for our guys,” Toole said after the quarterfinal victory. “That’s our responsibility as coaches is to make sure that we’re giving them the right information and that we’re making the best decisions that we can so that they can go out and do what they do, which is play.”

While a quarterfinal win and an attendance record were firsts for Robert Morris on Thursday, their UPMC Events Center roommates, the women’s basketball team, played a home quarterfinal matchup on Thursday. The ladies managed to take down Northern Kentucky to clinch a spot in their semifinal round which is also in Indianapolis.

While it is special for Bobby Mo nation that both, the men’s and the women’s teams, hosted their first ever Horizon League Tournament game this year, they both played on the same day and walked away with victories. But, there was more as it also marks the first trip to Indy for either team since joining the league in 2020.

“I’m so happy for them. Those girls work really, really hard. Chandler (McCabe) and her staff do an excellent job,” Toole said about RMU women’s team also advancing. [McCabe] constantly after our games or me after their games, we’re texting back and forth. Our team’s watching their games on the bus, they’re watching our games on the bus. 
There’s been a really great relationship built across both programs and really cool that the first time that both of us are gonna be able to go to (Indianapolis) is together.”

With the win in the rearview mirror, all attention now turns towards Monday night’s clash with Oakland at Corteva Coliseum. Robert Morris and Oakland should tip-off at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, March 6 in the Colonials first ever Horizon League semifinal game.

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