Defending champion Cleveland State followed the script against Robert Morris in the Horizon League Tournament men’s basketball quarterfinals Thursday, capping a night of victories for the higher-seeded teams.

Torrey Patton scored 25 points to lead the top-seeded Vikings into the semifinals with an 83-67 victory over the Colonials at Wolstein Center in Cleveland, ending Robert Morris’ second season in the league.

“We’ve got to get way better, so we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Robert Morris coach Andy Toole said.

A small consolation for the Colonials is their slight improvement in total victories over last season’s covid-shortened schedule.

“We’ve got to get bigger, stronger and tougher,” Toole said. “We’ve got to get better positioned to be able to protect our basket than we did this season.”

The Colonials, who won their tournament opening-round game at Youngstown State, finished the year with an 8-23 record (5-14 in the Horizon regular season), including a 4-9 mark in games decided by eight points or less.

But while the Colonials hung in against Cleveland State (20-9), trailing by just seven points with 3 minutes, 14 seconds left, the Vikings pulled away at the end, outscoring Robert Morris, 12-3, the rest of the way.

“They have so many guys that can step up and make plays,” Toole said. “We struggled to get into (the team’s sets) in large portions of the game. That hurt us. When we moved the ball with some pace and then we attacked, we got good stuff. It just wasn’t enough.”

The start of the game was delayed 10 minutes and the contest endured four other lenghty delays because of malfunctions with the clocks. Officials eventually had a manual unit placed on the scorer’s table while the public address announcer was instructed to count the number of seconds remaining on the shot clock through his microphone.

“The first half was so disjointed with all the stops and stuff, it made it hard for either team to find some rhythm,” Toole said. “It’s probably to their advantage, because they’re the more experienced team and they’re more comfortable in their building.”

Robert Morris trailed at halftime, 36-30.

Enoch Cheeks led Robert Morris with 21 points, while Kahliel Speer added 15 and Brandon Stone scored 10.

Cleveland State shot 54.2% compared to 50.0% for Robert Morris, which made just 5 of 21 3-point shots.

“We got some really good looks at times from 3,” Toole said. “You’ve got to make. When you come into a building like this and you’re going to have success against the defending champion, you’ve got to make all those shots … keep the game as close as you can to create some belief.”

D’Moi Hodge (15 points), Tre Gomillion (13) and Broc Finstuen (10) also scored in double figures for Cleveland State, which advances to play Wright State in the semifinals Monday at Indiana Farmers Coliseum in Indianapolis.

No. 4 Wright State defeated No. 5 Oakland, 75-63, in the quarterfinals.

Elsewhere, No. 2 Purdue Fort Wayne knocked off No. 8 Illinois-Chicago, 78-72, and No. 3 Northern Kentucky sidelined No. 6 Detroit Mercy, 77-59, setting up a Purdue Fort Wayne-Northern Kentucky matchup in the other Monday semifinal.

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