By Paul Meyer
RMUColonials.com
Dec. 4, 2012

Meyer on Morris Link

Moon Township, Pa. - Perhaps what happened inside the Charles L. Sewall Center the other night was inevitable.

After all, back in late September or maybe early October, a Robert Morris University insider told a friend ...

"You watch. There's going to be a game, especially a non-conference game early in the season where maybe the other team doesn't know much about him, that this kid is going to light it up from three.''

OK, the friend said. We'll see.

Well, last Saturday night was that night, and Karvel Anderson was that guy.

And we all saw. Perfectly.

Anderson staged one of the most spectacular accuracy displays in Sewall Center history, making all 10 of his field goal attempts, including a stunning 8-for-8 performance from beyond the arc, and scoring 28 points to lead the Colonials to an 84-76 victory over the previously unbeaten Ohio University Bobcats.

"Oh, man. It was amazing,'' RMU point guard Velton Jones said. "We kept going to him, and he just kept hitting. Impressive.''

To everybody but Anderson apparently.

He didn't seem all that impressed by his offense.

"Honestly, no,'' he said. "It's just basketball to me. It's making shots. I make shots every day. We all make shots. It's just offense. It really doesn't matter to me anymore.''

Perhaps that's understandable in Anderson's case. He's been there and done that.

Last Dec. 30, playing for Glen Oaks Community College, he dropped 54 points on Schoolcraft College.

"This was a whole other level,'' Anderson said. "The competition was way higher than Schoolcraft. I put this above (the) Schoolcraft (game).''

This performance was against Ohio University, which entered the Sewall Center 6-0 this season and coming off a Sweet Sixteen appearance in the NCAA Tournament last season.

And against which opponents this season had shot only 33 percent from international waters.

"We were a couple steps late,'' Bobcat coach Jim Christian said. "It's not like we weren't out there (on the court). We lost him (defensively) early a couple times, he had some clean looks and after that he got it going. You let a guy get going early, as the game goes on he gets a lot of confidence and that's what happened. He got hot, and they got hot.''

The Colonials made 12 of their 18 casts from three-point range, which in itself is darned good. But one player making all eight of his deep ball attempts? That's another matter entirely.

Maybe Anderson sensed something great would happen as he participated in the morning shoot-around Saturday.

"During the shoot-around, for some reason, I just felt like the rim was 10 feet wide,'' he said. "I felt like everything I shot was going to go in.''

Anderson learned Saturday he'd start the game because guard Anthony Myers-Pate is sidelined with a sore ankle.

"I knew I had to step up in some way since we weren't going to have Ant,'' Anderson said. "I felt I had to contribute in some way, and that's (all those points) just the way it happened to be.''

But it wasn't just the points.

"He played with a ton of energy,'' Jones said. "On the defensive end, he communicated. He grabbed (four) rebounds. His whole all-round game was great.''

"I'm impressed that I could sustain effort on both ends of the floor,'' Anderson said. "That was what was impressive to me - the fact that I could help my team by grabbing rebounds and communicating and helping on defense.''

Anderson said making his first collegiate start helped him.

"Coming off the bench, you have to catch up and get into the flow of the game,'' he said. "So I can stay it did help a little bit. It helped my mental preparation because I knew I had to be locked in right from the jump.''

RMU coach Andrew Toole seemed more struck by Anderson's continued defensive improvement.

"He's realizing that you have to play defense in Division I,'' Toole said. "He didn't have to play defense in his previous career. I think that adjustment for him might have hurt his shooting percentage a little bit - getting accustomed to the speed of what's going on.''

In the Colonials' first seven games, Anderson shot only 38.5 percent from the field, including 27.0 percent from deep. Yet he led the Colonials in field goals attempt (65) and deep balls launched (37).

"We got on him a little bit about being our leading shot-taker and not shooting a great percentage from three,'' Toole said. "We got on him about being somebody who has a green light (to shoot) and in order to live up to that responsibility he needs to start knocking them down.''

Toole figured Anderson eventually would become a scorer.

"We've seen him do stuff like that at times in practice,'' he said. "And when we first saw him on film in junior college we saw him do stuff similar to that.''

It's all the other aspects of Anderson's game that Toole feels he needs to improve. And Toole believes he will.

"He's becoming more and more solid defensively, and his positioning has been better and better,'' Toole said. "I think there are still some intricacies that he gets confused on, but the thing I know about Karvel is he'll come in (and look at film) and find out what he did wrong and try to improve on that. Karvel's a kid who really, really appreciates his opportunity to be here. I think he really cares about this program and this university and this team, and I think he wants to continue to prove to everybody that he's a big, big part of what we're doing.''

While Anderson's offensive contribution Saturday night was remarkable, the play of little-used Colonial David Appolon was equally welcome.

Appolon, a 6'2" sophomore from Philadelphia, had played only in this season's opener at Rider for a total of 17 minutes. Against Ohio University, however, Appolon played another 17 minutes and contributed seven points, four rebounds, an assist and a solid defensive job in helping the Colonials hold down Bobcat standout D.J. Cooper.

Cooper did score 19 points, but he was just 6-for-17 from the field, including 2-of-9 from beyond the arc.

"We slowed him down, and that gave us a chance to win,'' Appolon said. "I tried to get in his head on offense and defense, and I had my teammates helping me. I was just trying to be ready no matter what.''

"He was the key to this game,'' Jones said. "Karvel made shots, but (Appolon's) energy and the way he played defense was great. For him to come in and be ready and play the way he did was great. I'm real happy for him that he was able to do that for us.''

"He helped us tremendously,'' Toole said. "We've been trying to get Dave to help us like that for a while now. He needs to be consistent in his approach. I think that's the biggest thing. It's easy to get excited for games like Ohio University. Well when we step on the court to go over Campbell, are you going to be just as excited and just as focused? That's Dave's biggest challenge.

"I'm sure if we just let him play 12 or 15 minutes every game, some games would be pretty good and some games not, but in this program you have to try to be as consistent as you can on a daily basis. He had a couple good practices, he started to get in a little bit of a flow in practice and he got an opportunity and definitely took great advantage of that. He's somebody we have to keep on on a daily basis. He can do things like this. We know that talent isn't his issue. It's his mindset of coming in and playing with the energy you need and the intensity you need and flying around like he can.''

Led by Anderson's uncanny accuracy and Appolon's intensity, the Colonials surged to a 31-12 lead in the first 13 minutes of the game. Ohio University, playing its first road game of the season, steadied at that point and made it a close game pretty much the rest of the way.

The Colonials, though, were able to keep the Bobcats at bay by demonstrating Anderson-like marksmanship from the free throw line. RMU made 28 of its 35 free throw attempts, including 21-of-26 in the second half.

"What bothered me is if you're going to win on the road you have to be fundamentally sound positionally,'' Christian said. "Somebody's going to get hot from three, but you can't compound it by fouling. Every time we got the game to five or six, we fouled. And it was a position foul. It was just silly things. You're going to run into nights when guys shoot the ball and guys who don't make shots make shots, but at the end of the day if you score 76 points, you should win on the road.''

The Colonials had the one-and-one free throw opportunity - and then the bonus - beginning with 13 minutes left in the game. Over the next 12 minutes, they made 15-of-16 from the free throw line.

"Pretty cool,'' Jones said.

The Colonials' achievement of beating the Bobcats in each of four consecutive seasons is a rarity. The last time a non-conference team beat the Mid-American Conference Bobcats in each of four consecutive seasons happened in 2004 when Wisconsin finished a run of four straight wins against Ohio University.

"A great, great win for us,'' Toole said. "It's a great accomplishment. I was very proud of the way they continued to fly around and try and contest shots and try to continue to get stop after stop after stop. Hopefully it shows our guys what they can be capable of if they continue to give the proper amount of effort and focus.''

And that's the rub. The Colonials often have followed a great win with a lousy performance in their next game.

"As well as we played, we've had other performances where we haven't played as well, and we have to remember both of those things,'' Toole said. "We talked in the locker room about staying humble. We're a 4-4 team.