Moon Township, Pa. - The Robert Morris University men's basketball team avoided its first three-game losing streak at the Charles L. Sewall Center since November of 2001 Saturday night with an 81-79 victory over Ohio.
In notching its second straight win, the Colonials improved to 6-7 overall on the 2009-10 campaign and earned its 14th straight win during the month of January under third-year head coach Mike Rice. Over the last three seasons, RMU owns a mark of 18-1 in January under Rice.
Knotted at 74 with 2:19 remaining after a pair of free throws from Kenneth van Kempen of the Bobcats, freshman guard Karon Abraham (Paterson, N.J. / Harp Academy) gave Robert Morris the lead for good with his sixth three-pointer of the game with 2:09 to play to push the Colonials in front, 77-74.
D.J. Cooper game back to pull Ohio within one, 77-76, with a runner in the lane, but senior forward Rob Robinson (Waldorf, Md. / Globe Institute of Technology) got a feed from redshirt freshman Velton Jones (Philadelphia, Pa. / Northeast Catholic) and slammed it home to keep the RMU lead at three, 79-76.
The score remained that way until under a minute left, when Cooper went 1-for-2 at the free-throw line with 48 seconds left on the second-half clock as the Bobcats pulled to within two, 79-77, but Abraham helped seal the victory with a pair from the free-throw line with 5.4 seconds to go.
Cooper would drive the length of the court and convert a layup to pull Ohio back within two, 79-77, with just one second to play, and on the ensuing inbounds pass Jones was fouled by Asown Sayles. Jones missed both of his attempts from the charity stripe, and DeVaughn Washington came down with the rebound for the Bobcats but could not get a shot off as time expired.
Robert Morris opened the game on a 22-6 spurt to take an early 16-point advantage, its large of the game, as redshirt freshman Russell Johnson (Chester, Pa. / Chester) bolstered the surge with seven points while senior Mezie Nwigwe (Hyattsville, Md. / High Point) added six points.
The Bobcats got back in the game thanks to the hot shooting of Jay Kinney, who scored 16 points off the bench for Ohio in the first half and finished with a game-high 25 points. Kinney was at the forefront of a 14-2 run by scoring 10 straight points, while a layup from Sayles with 9:02 remaining before halftime trimmed the deficit for the Bobcats to 24-20.
Abraham stopped the run with a three-pointer, and a dunk from Robinson and a layup from senior forward Dallas Green (Indianapolis, Indiana / Northwest) quickly pushed RMU's lead back to double digits, 31-20.
Ohio responded with a 13-2 surge that knotted the game, 33-33, with 3:03 to play before intermission as Kinney buried a pair of three-pointers, but Robert Morris closed the stanza on a 6-2 spurt to take a 39-35 lead into the break.
The Bobcats took their first lead since the first basket of the game, 48-47, when van Kempen hit the back end of a pair of free throws, which was part of a 15-3 run by Ohio. Cooper scored seven points to lead the way, while Kinney and Armon Bassett each buried three-pointers.
The Colonials chipped away, taking the lead for the final time with 9:52 to play when Nwigwe converted a layup on a fastbreak. Robert Morris eventually stretched its lead to six, 64-58, after a jumper from Green and held off a late rally by the Bobcats.
Abraham paced RMU with a career-high 23 points in his second career start, finishing 6-for-7 from beyond the three-point arc while going 5-for-6 at the free-throw line. For the second time this season Abraham tied the RMU freshman record for three-pointers in a game with six.
Robinson added a season-high 21 points on 9-of-15 shooting and also tied for team-high honors with six rebounds, while Nwigwe finished with 11 points and four assists. Jones, despite not scoring, posted 10 assists against no turnovers and also recorded a steal in 22 minutes off the bench.
In addition to Kinney's outburst for Ohio (8-5), Cooper finished with 22 points, eight assists and six steals, van Kempen recorded 11 points and a game-high eight rebounds and Bassett posted 10 points and five dimes.
Robert Morris returns to the hardwood at the Sewall Center Monday, Jan. 4, when it welcomes Morgan State for a 7:00 p.m. tip.
