Robert Morris edges Milwaukee in Horizon League home opener

It wasn’t pretty, but Robert Morris men’s basketball coach Andy Toole and his youthful team will certainly take Friday’s 67-64 victory over Milwaukee in the first of a two-game Horizon League set at UPMC Events Center.

“Obviously a hard-fought, well-earned win by our guys,” Toole said.

“It certainly was ugly, but at the end, to be able to be up at least one point on the scoreboard, I think, was huge for us. A lot of guys stepped up and made unbelievable contributions, gave great energy, gave great effort.”

Friday’s game marked the first at home for RMU (3-3, 2-1) in Horizon League play and the first game against Milwaukee in 43 years. The Colonials made their conference debut a week ago, splitting a pair of matchups at Purdue Fort Wayne.

The Colonials took the lead for good — 63-61 — on a AJ Bramah jumper with 52 seconds left. Bramah led all scorers with 20 points, and he added 14 rebounds for his first double-double of the season and ninth of his career.

Junior guard Cam Wilbon sank two free throws with 13 seconds left to put RMU up 67-61. But Milwaukee (3-2, 2-1) didn’t wilt, and Grant Coleman drained one of his team-best five 3-pointers with nine seconds on the clock to cut the deficit in half.

A missed free throw from Colonials freshman Trayden Williams gave the Panthers one last chance, but Josh Thomas’ 3-point attempt at the buzzer was no good.

Three other RMU players joined Bramah in double figures. Freshman Enoch Cheeks scored 13 points and added seven rebounds and three steals, and junior Cam Wilbon had 10 points, nine rebounds, just shy of his first career double-double.

Williams scored 10 points.

RMU played without senior guard Jon Williams and junior guard Dante Treacy because of covid protocols. Toole couldn’t say if either would be available for Saturday’s 5 p.m. rematch.

“It’s always tough playing back-to-backs, especially the same team twice,” Bramah said. “We still have a lot of things we haven’t shown yet as far as the playbook.”

Neither team led by more than six at any point. Milwaukee was ahead 53-47 at the 8-minute, 51-second mark of the second half.

Robert Morris shot 40% (24 for 60) from the field and overcame 16 turnovers. Milwaukee finished with a 33.9 field-goal percentage (19-56) and turned the ball over 14 times. Twelve of the Panthers’ 19 field goals were from beyond the arc.

“The thing that I will say about it is that very few, if any, of our turnovers were live-ball turnovers, so we were able to go back and set our defense often,” Toole said.

“I think that was something that was really helpful.”

Milwaukee scored just nine points off of the Colonial giveaways.

RMU outrebounded Milwaukee, 47-32. That included 16 offensive rebounds, and the Colonials recorded a 22-10 advantage in second-chance points.

Coleman and DeAndre Gholston scored 16 points each to lead the Panthers, who trailed 30-29 at the half and 43-40 at the 15:06 mark of the second before Coleman connected on back-to-back 3-pointers to give his team the lead.

Milwaukee played for the first time since a 74-62 win over Green Bay on Dec. 20. A pair of games against Illinois-Chicago (Dec. 26-27) were postponed because of covid protocols.