Meyer on Morris Link
Moon Township, Pa. - You've heard of baseball's "Eight Men Out.''
Robert Morris Thursday night presented college basketball's "Eight Men In.'' All in.
Exactly how long this limited engagement runs is unclear, but for one night, anyway, it was a rousing success.
The Colonials, already down
Mike McFadden and Desjuan Newton, also were without starter Jeremiah Worthem, reserve guard Britton Lee and walk-ons Evan Grey and Shaire Tolson-Ford for their game against Sacred Heart at the Charles L. Sewall Center.
The latter four had been suspended for having violated university policy.
That left the Colonials with only eight players as they sought to remain unbeaten in Northeast Conference play -- which they did.
Impressively.
The eight players banded together, shot 53.6 percent from the field, committed only five turnovers and produced six double-figure scorers en route to routing the Pioneers, 91-65.
"We just came out here and handled our business,'' junior
Lucky Jones said. "It's what we had to deal with as a team, and we just got the job done.''
Senior point guard
Anthony Myers-Pate said the remaining eight players didn't learn of the short-handed situation until pre-game warmups.
"We couldn't worry about what we couldn't control,'' Myers-Pate said. "We had to stick together as a family and step up like men and get the job done.''
"I was very proud of the way the guys responded,'' RMU coach
Andrew Toole said. "I was very proud of the way they played together. I was proud to coach that group. We challenged them a little bit before the game and said, 'This is going to be a great test of what kind of team we are. You know everybody believes they can play, and now it's your opportunity to go out and show it.'''
The active Colonials definitely showed it -- for one game at least. The resounding win against Sacred Heart moved Robert Morris to 5-0 in the Northeast Conference.
But now, in quick order, come Wagner, the NEC coaches' preseason pick to win the the league championship, on Saturday at 4 at the Sewall Center, and then Bryant (4-1) next Thursday.
Will the Colonials have a short bench for the Wagner game? For both games?
"What I know is that there's a violation of university policy, and we're trying to sort the rest of it out,'' Toole said.
Is Toole concerned about being short-handed against a Wagner team that is very deep?
"I'm concerned with a lot on Saturday,'' Toole said.
Wagner, for its part, also had a bit of adversity Thursday night. After winning handily at Central Connecticut State, 88-59, Jan. 9, the Seahawks lost to the visiting -- and also short-handed -- Blue Devils, 87-83, Thursday. It was CCSU's first conference victory this season.
"I think our guys believed it was going to be like (Jan. 9) again,'' Wagner coach Bashir Mason told the
Staten Island Advance. "(We) came in taking ill-advised shots and playing defense in slow motion. You have to play the game the right way. We didn't do that, and we're not good enough to win if we don't.''
Suitably chastened and humbled, the Seahawks (3-2) likely will be a bit more focused Saturday.
The Colonials, no matter what their personnel issues, will have a better grasp of their situation.
It helped that the Colonials weren't extended against Sacred Heart. Even with a short bench, no Colonial played more than 28 minutes. With the game decided midway through the second half, Toole was able to rest Jones, Myers-Pate and
Karvel Anderson for the final several minutes.
"Once we were able to build the lead, I think it's only smart to take (out) Lucky and Ant and Karvel and give them a couple more minutes of rest,'' Toole said.
Sacred Heart bothered the Colonials only momentarily Thursday night.
After Robert Morris rushed out to a 16-5 lead, the Pioneers closed to within, 18-15, nine minutes into the first half. However, the Colonials regrouped and pushed their advantage to 48-33 at intermission. The Pioneers trimmed their deficit to 50-38 early in the second half, but a 17-4 RMU run over the next five minutes decided the matter.
"I'm very thankful to get the win and proud of our guys and the way they performed,'' Toole said. "I thought they played excellently as a team. Fourteen assists to five turnovers I thought was terrific. I'm really, really proud of the effort and the way that they handled themselves on the floor.
That the Colonials had just five turnovers while playing with different personnel groupings was impressive.
"We talked about trying to make some simple plays, and we didn't face a ton of pressure from Sacred Heart,'' Toole said. "Guys were just pretty comfortable and locked in offensively, and I think when they went to the rim they were making the right decisions.''
The Colonials did seem more intent on driving the ball into the lane rather than firing away from beyond the arc. They averaged almost 20 attempts per game from international waters in their first 19 games. Against Sacred Heart, the Colonials attempted only 13 shots from distance.
"We kind of did the same thing the last time we played them,'' Anderson said, referring to RMU's 79-70 victory at Sacred Heart Jan. 9. "The kind of defense they play, they kind of sag and stay in front of you. They just want you to shoot the three. We try not to live off it, and we felt like one-on-one when we wanted to attack they couldn't stay in front of us. We could get them in some trouble by attacking the basket.''
"There are different situations based on opponent,'' Toole said. "Tonight was a situation where we wanted to attack the rim. Saturday might not be as much of that situation. We're going to have to game-plan offensively and try to get the guys to execute to the best of their abilities.''
At Sacred Heart two weeks ago, Anderson went off for 36 points. Thursday night, he scored 15.
"Last time, it was just one of those nights,'' Anderson said. "I was glad everybody got a piece of it tonight. That's always nice. That's the type of team this program has predicated itself on being. It showed on the scoreboard that we're a better team when we all perform.''
Jones led the Colonials with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
Charles Oliver scored 13 points, while Stephan Hawkins added 12 and Myers-Pate and
Kavon Stewart chipped in 11 apiece.
It was the first game in which Robert Morris produced six double-figure scorers since Jan. 17, 2009. That night, in the Colonials' 104-56 waxing of Wagner, Rob Robinson (20 points), Jeremy Chappell (17), Gary Wallace (15), Jimmy Langhurst (14), Dallas Green (13) and Khalif Foster (10) reached double figures.
Thursday night's performance was quite similar.
"We shot the ball extremely well,'' Toole said. "I thought in the first half we did a really good job of not settling for jumpers, and we really attacked the rim whether it was for layups or free throws. I thought our guys maintained their focus and were able to sustain their effort for the entire 40 minutes. I felt like in the timeouts in the second half we had really good leadership from guys who were stepping up and saying, 'Continue to follow our formula, continue to work, continue to execute,' and were kind of reminding each other about sustaining that effort.''
Toole had to use a balancing act while directing his short-handed cast against the Pioneers. It didn't seem wise to get into a run-and-gun tempo with another game in less than 48 hours. On the other hand, the Colonials did have success pushing the ball against Sacred Heart.
"I felt we could get good stuff in transition,'' Toole said, "but I also felt like at times we could shrink the game and still get a really good shot offensively. We didn't need to rush down and make it hectic. Once we built a little bit of a lead, I didn't want to give them more opportunity to cut into that lead. As much as I like our guys playing up-pace, I also know that sometimes we can rush some quick shots, and if we take quick ones and now have to go back and defend, (the Pioneers) are a dangerous team with some
guys who can make threes. And we saw last Thursday (against Saint Francis University) when you take quick shots and you don't defend properly how quickly a lead can evaporate.''
In that game against the Red Flash, the Colonials led, 50-39, with 11:21 remaining. Six minutes later, they trailed, 65-54.
But just as with Thursday night's issues, all's well that ends well.
"We just said we had to push the pedal to the metal and continue to get stops and continue to score,'' Jones said.
The Colonials' 5-0 start in league play matches their best ever. They also started 5-0 in 2005-06 and 1990-91.
UP NEXT: Wagner led CCSU, 75-70, with 2:38 left, but the Blue Devils went on an 11-0 run to change the game. Matt Mobley led the breakout with a three and then six free throws. Brandon Peel's two free throws with six seconds remaining put CCSU up, 87-83. "I'm embarrassed with the way we played and take full responsibility for what was our lack of toughness and grit at the defensive end of the floor," Mason told the Staten Island newspaper. "I don't want to take anything away from Central Connecticut. They came in and they executed and played great. But I think our guys didn't show up, and we didn't deserve to win the game.''
Central Connecticut, playing without stars Matthew Hunter (academics) and Kyle Vinales (broken finger), shot 54 percent from the field.
"We're not where we want to be defensively," Mason said. "I think for the most part we've been really scoring the ball well and getting into a good offensive flow. But our defense hasn't always held up, and that's where we need to improve."
Mobley led the Blue Devils with a career-high 22 points. Malcolm McMillan added 19 for CCSU, which visits RMU Feb. 1.
Marcus Burton (16 points) and Mario Moody (15) combined for 31 Wagner points off the bench. Guard Latif Rivers scored 14 points despite a poor shooting evening. He was 6-for-18 from the field, including zero for five from deep.
NEC NUGGETS: Sacred Heart's leading scorer, Evan Kelley, who'd missed the previous six games because of a shoulder injury, returned against Robert Morris. Kelley, though, didn't start and scored only two points -- 12 below his average … Jones pushed his career points total to 978 … Bryant trailed visiting LIU Brooklyn, 42-32, at halftime but rallied to win, 87-79. The Bulldogs had 21 assists on their 30 field goals and made 18-of-23 free throw attempts. LIU Brooklyn was just 6-for-12 from the line and 11-of-34 from beyond the arc. Alex Francis had a 24-11 double-double for Bryant, while Dyami Starks ended a brief shooting slump by going eight of 15 from the field (five of nine from deep) and scoring 23 points. Jason Brickman had 15 points and 13 assists for the Blackbirds … Mount St. Mary's won at Saint Francis University, 83-77. Sam Prescott led the Mountaineers with 25 points, while Earl Brown scored 30 points (13-of-17 from the field) and had eight rebounds for the Red Flash … Fairleigh Dickinson, which finished 2-16 in the NEC last season, raised its record to 3-2 this season with an 86-85 win against visiting Saint Francis Brooklyn. The Terriers led by six points with 1:23 left but couldn't hold on. Malachi Nix made two free throws with four seconds remaining to give the Knights the victory. Sidney Sanders Jr. led the Knights with 20 points (and nine assists) on an interesting shooting game. He was 4-of-20 from the field but made 12-of-13 free throw attempts. Jalen Cannon had a 23-11 double-double for the Terriers.
