Robert Morris beats Mount St. Mary’s, remains in NEC title contention
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The losing skid is over for Robert Morris.
The Colonials rallied in the second half to top Mount St. Mary’s, 68-60, Friday night in a Northeast Conference battle at UPMC Events Center.
“It was a good win for our guys,” RMU coach Andy Toole said. “That was a little more like Robert Morris basketball than we’ve seen in the last week or so. It was good to see.
The Mountaineers (10-18, 6-9) built a quick 12-3 led in the game’s first 4:35. Slowly, though, the Colonials, who dropped their previous two games, marched back.
“Something we talked about was getting back to our formula and being able to defend, even though they came out hot and our team defense wasn’t too sharp in the beginning of the game,” Toole said. “I thought, in the second half, it was really urgent and really sharp. I thought guys really played incredibly hard, and I thought we were able to execute offensively down the stretch.”
Josh Williams gave the team a spark when he swished a 3-pointer and added another bucket to trim the deficit to 26-21 with 5:38 left in the opening half. A.J. Bramah’s dunk made it a 28-25 game 1:14 later, but Mount St. Mary’s carried a 33-28 lead into halftime.
Robert Morris tied the game at 35-all 3:58 into the second half. After Sayveon McEwen’s hustle play to dive and deflect a ball off a Mountaineers player for a turnover, Williams swished a trey for the stalemate.
However, the guests scored two more quick buckets to regain the lead, 39-35.
Jalen Hawkins gave Robert Morris its first lead, 42-41, with 12:17 to play when he swished a 3-pointer. He added a floater for a 44-41 edge but picked up his fourth personal foul on the next possession, which landed him a seat on the bench.
Charles Bain’s 3-pointer gave the Colonials a 50-44 buffer and a little breathing room with 8:47 left, but Jalen Gibbs answered from long distance for Mount St. Mary’s 24 seconds later.
The Mountaineers came back, though. Vado Morse tied the game at 57-all with 3:42 to play when he swished a trey. Robert Morris junior Jon Williams answered back with an NBA-range 3-pointer with 2:36 remaining for a 60-57 advantage.
“We have to battle back. We have to keep playing. We have to continue to try to follow the formula. You can’t try to do anything other than that. I thought our guys did a really nice job of that,” Toole said. “Even when we took the lead and they came back and tied it, we didn’t flinch. We continued to respond and continued to get stops. Jon’s three was huge.”
Clinging to a 61-59 lead, Bramah snagged a defensive rebound with 1:26 on the clock. Josh Williams followed with a 3-pointer for a 64-59 lead with 1:01 remaining. After a Mount St. Mary’s errant 3-point attempt, Dante Treacy missed a free throw. However, he stole the ball on the Mountaineers’ next possession and was fouled. He swished both free throws for a 66-59 edge with 23.2 to play.
Mount St. Mary’s was held without a field goal for the final 2:12 as the Colonials secured the win at the foul line.
Josh Williams led Robert Morris with 22 points. Yannis Mendy had 13. Gibbs paced Mount St. Mary’s with 19 points. Morse added 10.
Robert Morris (16-13, 12-4) moved into second in the NEC standings. Merrimack (19-10, 13-3) sits at the top, but the first-year Division I school is ineligible for the conference tournament.
That’s left Robert Morris and St. Francis (18-8, 11-4) in a race to gain the top seed for the NEC Tournament, which begins March 4. The teams have a showdown next Saturday in the regular-season finale at Robert Morris.
The Colonials visit Fairleigh Dickinson on Sunday afternoon. It caps a busy stretch for Robert Morris.
“We have to get our bodies back and our minds right. We have to start to prepare and then we can empty the tank on Sunday,” Toole said. “From there, we can continue to reassess, but we have to be the mentally tougher team to fight through five games in basically eight, nine days.”