Men's Basketball 1/31/2015 5:00:00 AM By Paul Meyer

Meyer On Morris: A Pryor Engagement

Moon Township, Pa. – A Pryor engagement led to the Robert Morris Colonials' most recent victory.

Rodney Pryor poured in a career-high 28 points, including 19 in the second half, as the Colonials pulled away and beat Fairleigh Dickinson fairly decisively, 87-65, Thursday evening.

The win left Robert Morris in a tie for first place with St. Francis Brooklyn in the Northeast Conference as the Colonials prepare for today's matinee against Bryant in the Charles L. Sewall Center.

"That was great,'' RMU coach Andrew Toole said of Pryor's performance. "In the league, people try to take away his ability to make threes, so it was nice for him to find some space. He shot them all in rhythm. His teammates did a good job finding him. He can really get it rolling once he gets started.''

Thing was, Pryor in his prior eight NEC games had trouble getting started. After shooting 45 percent from distance in non-conference play, the junior made only 32 percent of his casts from international waters against NEC teams.

Until Thursday night against the Knights.

Pryor made 7-of-10 from beyond the arc, including 5-of-6 in the second half, against Fairleigh Dickinson.

Once FDU switched to a zone defense, Pryor was in a zone of his own.

"Their zone wasn't that great,'' Pryor said. "When they went to it, I knew I was going to have good looks, so I was just making sure my feet were ready to shoot. In the second half, when I saw one go in and then the second one, I knew it was going to be that type of night.''

Pryor, who also had a career-high 11 rebounds to produce his first collegiate double-double, recently spent extra time freshening his body. He hadn't played in two seasons while battling injuries in junior college.

"I tried to deny it for a long time,'' Pryor said of hitting a wall physically, "but it just goes along with the game of basketball. You're not going to be great every night, so you just have to find a way to keep getting in the gym and putting up shots and having the confidence to knock down the shot when it comes to you. I had to get back on my rehab. I had to hit it more. I felt my legs were getting pretty weak. A lot of times my shot was falling short, so I got back on rehab to get my legs refreshed, (took) more ice baths.''

"It was a concern that we had a little bit with him not playing competitive games for two years,'' Toole said. "You become de-conditioned to the grind of the season. Obviously he had to work to get back from injury, but it's a little different when your body wears down from practice and games and travel. He's just stayed with it. He's doing the best he can to always take care of his body and trying to have productive practices. He's been trying to get out early to practices the last couple of days to get in rhythm, get himself moving. I think that's a big key to him keeping his mind fresh so that his body can stay fresh.''

Pryor's scoring is a huge key to success for the Colonials (11-10, 7-2 NEC). In their 11 victories, he's shot 62.9 percent from the field, including 61.1 percent from deep, and averaged 18.6 points per game.

Of course, Pryor had an abundance of scoring help against FDU. Freshman Marcquise Reed scored 14 points and added five assists, senior Lucky Jones had 13 points, eight rebounds and four assists and junior Aaron Tate added 10 points and five rebounds.

Tate has scored 10 points in each of the last two home games, so it seems he's becoming something of a scoring machine.

"I wouldn't say I was a scoring machine,'' Tate said, laughing. "It's just my teammates. They help me. When they drive, they actually look for me, so I move myself so I can get easy buckets. When they drive, they know I'm going to do what I have to do to get open. That gives them that comfort to know that I'm there for the pass. I don't worry about my points. I pride myself on rebounds and getting defensive stops. If the offense is there, it's there. I don't really worry too much about my offense.''

But point production from Tate certainly helps the Colonials.

"What's great about Aaron is that he has such good knowledge of what we're trying to do offensively he knows the open area to get to and can make you pay when you help off him,'' Toole said. "When teams are going to do that, we have to take advantage of that. We have to get him layups. We have to be able to get him some of those early buckets so that they can't continue to help off him. A lot of it is just a product of Aaron understanding where he needs to be and when he needs to be there so his teammates can find him.''

The Colonials, en route to their fourth consecutive victory, jumped on FDU and quickly constructed a 21-8 lead.

"For us, regardless of who our opponent is, we've played better when we get off to good starts,'' Toole said. "That's not really next-level coaching, (but getting) out with the proper amount of energy and enthusiasm is really important for us. We're a team that when we see the ball go through the basket early we feel more comfortable. I don't know if that's necessarily a good thing, but that's kind of the personality of who we are."

So is this.

"We built that lead and then we kind of took an exhale,'' Toole said. "That's what concerns me the most. Maintaining that level of effort and sustained level of effort constantly is huge, and we're still working on that. We still talk about it. We're still going to need to improve it.''

The Knights, en route to losing their seventh consecutive game, cut RMU's early lead to 21-17. However, the Colonials regrouped and led, 41-28, at halftime. After FDU trimmed its deficit to 41-35 early in the second half, Pryor and senior Dave Appolon went to work, leading the Colonials to 63-42 advantage midway through the second half.

Sophomore point guard Kavon Stewart played only the first three and-a-half minutes of the second half.

"He didn't start the half very well, and he asked for a sub, and we subbed him,'' Toole said. "We kind of just rolled with the guys who were on the floor and went from there. There's not much more to it than that.''

Appolon subbed in for Stewart and had a dandy second half, scoring seven points and dishing three assists in 12 minutes.

"The way you prepare a lot of times is the way you play,'' Toole said. "He was down in the gym (Thursday) about 12:30 and he was on the court at one o'clock and shoot around was at two. (Assistant coach) Tim Lawrence had him out there and getting shots, and I think when you do those kinds of things you start to get your mind prepared and focused to play. That's the biggest challenge with us -- the mental approach we take. It's not like we can't run fast on one day or we can't jump high on one day or we can't dribble and make layups on (certain) days. It's just how we approach the game mentally. The biggest hurdle for us is staying in the proper mindset and being able to complete the tasks that the game asks you to complete.''

The task this game asked the Colonials to complete was simply beating Fairleigh Dickinson and not thinking ahead to the game against Bryant, which is 6-3 in the NEC and tied for third place.

"Toole talked about it being a trap game,'' Pryor said. "This was our biggest game on the schedule and then our next game is our biggest game. That's the mentality we have to have no matter what (a team's) record is. If you don't look up, you can get beat. To get wins is important, but the preparation is key. We came into conference with the mindset that we have to win every single game, so to see us picking up wins in a row feels good, but we can't slack off. We have to keep coming in the gym and putting in work to prepare ourselves every night.''

The Colonials' four-game winning streak seems reminiscent of last season's team that reeled off two seven-game winning streaks on its way to winning the NEC regular-season championship.

"I wouldn't say it feels the same because we have basically a whole different team, but it feels good,'' Tate said. "That felt great last year and this feels great, but it's a different great. It's just different. We have a whole different set of people and a whole different set of attitudes. That brings a different mentality to our team.''

Conrad Stephens is part of this "whole different team,'' and the sophomore walk-on made his collegiate debut with 50 seconds remaining Thursday evening. His teammates, and the fans, greeted his on-court appearance with exuberance that rivaled the entry into games of walk-on Treadwell Lewis a few seasons ago.

"It was just so awesome,'' Tate said of Stephens getting playing time. "He works so hard in practice. I love him, man. He's just that type of person that everyone can get along with.''

"He comes to work just like we come to work,'' Pryor said. "To come on as a walk-on without a scholarship and come to work every day and put in your work is pretty impressive.''

"Conrad's a good dude,'' Toole said. "He works hard. I probably should have put him in a little bit earlier than I did, but when you're a nervous coach you're always worrying about bad things happening. He works very hard in practice every day. He's been a great addition for us. The guys really like him and respect the way he works, so they want to see him get in there and get an opportunity to shoot. I mean, as soon as he went in, all the guys on the court we're talking about getting him a shot.''

And they did.

Stephens attempted his first collegiate shot from the right elbow with 22 seconds left. He missed it, but …

"It's nice to see when those kinds of things can happen when somebody can get in and be part of a Division I game,'' Toole said.

UP NEXT: Bryant lost at St. Francis University, 75-68, Thursday night. The Bulldogs made 21 of their 24 free throw attempts, but shot only 33 percent from the field. The Red Flash shot 56.3 percent from the floor. Earl Brown scored 19 points for SFU.

Joe O'Shea led Bryant with 21 points, and teammate Dyami Starks added 16 points. However, Starks had to work for those 16. He was just 2-for-18 from the field, including 2-of-11 from beyond the arc. Starks did go 10-of-10 from the free throw line.

The Bulldogs received a huge contribution from 6'7'' freshman Bosko Kostur, who'd scored only 21 points total in Bryant's first 18 games. Against SFU, Kostur scored 18 points in his 32 minutes.

NEC NUGGETS: St. Francis Brooklyn kept pace with Robert Morris by getting past visiting Mount St. Mary's, 73-67, in overtime. The Mountaineers, who led by five points just inside the final minute of regulation, have lost three overtime games in NEC play. SFC's Jalen Cannon had a 26-13 double-double and became the fourth player in NEC history to get at least 1,000 career rebounds … Wagner beat visiting Sacred Heart, 75-64. Marcus Burton scored 26 points for Wagner. Sacred Heart continued to hurt itself at the foul line, making just 16-of-33 attempts. The Pioneers are last in the NEC in free throw accuracy with a mark of 57.6 percent against league opposition … LIU Brooklyn beat visiting Central Connecticut State, 67-55. Gerrell Martin had 17 points for the Blackbirds, while Faronte Drakeford put together a 20-11 double-double for CCSU.

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Players Mentioned

#22 Lucky Jones: G/F; 6' 6"; Senior; Sr.

#3 Kavon Stewart: G; 6' 0"; Sophomore; So.

#24 Aaron Tate: F; 6' 5"; Junior; Jr.

#2 Marcquise Reed: G; 6' 3"; Freshman; Fr.

#11 Rodney Pryor: G; 6' 5"; Junior; Jr.

Players Mentioned

#22 Lucky Jones
: 6' 6"; Senior; Sr.
: G/F

#3 Kavon Stewart
: 6' 0"; Sophomore; So.
: G

#24 Aaron Tate
: 6' 5"; Junior; Jr.
: F

#2 Marcquise Reed
: 6' 3"; Freshman; Fr.
: G

#11 Rodney Pryor
: 6' 5"; Junior; Jr.
: G