Men's Basketball | 12/13/2015 1:09:00 PM

GAME10
Robert Morris (1-8) @ Columbia (7-5)
Monday, December 14, 2015 • 2:00 p.m.
Levien Gymnasium (2,700) • New York, N.Y.
 
Radio: ESPN 970 AM & 106.3 FM
Radio Talent: Chris Shovlin (pxp) & Jim Duzyk (color)
Video: IvyLeagueDigitalNetwork.com • GoColumbiaLions.com
Twitter: @RMUMBasketball • Instagram: @RMUMBasketball

Quick Hits
 
- The Robert Morris University men's basketball team gets back to action after over a week off with a matinee contest Monday afternoon @ Columbia. Tip time is 2:00 p.m.
 
- The Colonials are coming off a 92-74 setback to Oakland (12/5/15) in just their second home game of the 2015-16 season. Senior guard Rodney Pryor paced RMU by registering his third double-double of the year and fourth of his career thanks to a career-high 35 points and 12 rebounds.
 
- Junior forward Billy Giles also recorded a double-double against the Golden Grizzlies thanks to 16 points and 10 caroms. Pryor and Giles are the first Robert Morris duo to finish with a double-double in the same game since Kavon Stewart (12 points, 11 assists) and Elijah Minnie (10 points, 10 rebounds) in a 75-59 win over Duquesne (12/13/14).
 
- Pryor and Giles are also the first pair of RMU teammates to finish with at least 10 rebounds in a game since former Colonials Tony Lee (2004-08) and A.J. Jackson (2003-08) @ LIU Brooklyn (2/16/06), a span of 316 games. Lee finished with 12 boards against the Blackbirds, while Jackson posted 10.
 
- Prior to falling to Oakland, RMU concluded a five-game road trip with a 65-58 setback @ Youngstown State (12/2/15). Senior guard Rodney Pryor scored 13 of his game-high 20 points in the second half to garner game-high honors in scoring.
 
- Freshman guard Matty McConnell came off the bench to register his first double-figure scoring game against the Penguins with 12 points. He finished 4-for-12 shooting, including a 4-for-11 performance from beyond the arc.
 
- RMU concluded play in the Air Force Classic as part of its five-game road trip by picking up its first victory of the 2015-16 campaign with a 67-64 win over Mississippi Valley State (11/28/15) at the Eblen Center in Cookeville, Tenn. Senior guard Rodney Pryor hit a jumper in the lane with 47.1 seconds to play that put RMU in front for good and finished with his second double-double of the year thanks to 17 points and a career-high 12 rebounds.
 
- Junior forward Billy Giles contributed 12 points, seven rebounds, two assists, a block and a pair of steals in the victory over the Delta Devils, while freshman guard Isaiah Still tallied 10 points, seven boards and three assists.
 
- RMU finished 1-3 (.250) in the Air Force Classic after splitting a pair of games in Cookeville, Tenn. The Colonials fell @ Tennessee Tech (11/27/15), 85-72, prior to knocking off MVSU. Senior guard Rodney Pryor came off the bench to garner game-high honors in scoring against the Golden Eagles with 21 points.
 
- Robert Morris returns home to the Charles L. Sewall Center after taking Columbia Monday afternoon, welcoming Lehigh for a 7:00 p.m. tip Thursday, December 17, in its final non-conference home game of the 2015-16 season.
 


Oakland Tidbits - Robert Morris fell to 0-3 all-time against Oakland, including 0-2 at the Charles L. Sewall Center ... RMU grabbed its largest lead of the game, 37-28, with 4:07 left in the first half before the Golden Grizzlies used a 12-2 run to grab a 40-39 advantage at halftime ... Oakland outrebounded RMU, 50-45, but the Colonials won the battle on the offensive glass, 14-13 ... Robert Morris finished with 34 points in the paint and over its last five games is averaging 29.2 points down low ... Senior guard Rodney Pryor established a career high with three blocks.
 
Southpaw - For the eighth time in nine games to start the 2015-16 campaign, senior guard Rodney Pryor earned team-high honors in scoring against Oakland (12/5/15) by finishing with a career-high 35 points. Pryor leads the Northeast Conference in scoring at 21.2 points per game and is off to the best offensive start through nine games in school history. A look at RMU's best offensive starts through 10 games in program history ...
 

Name	Year	PPG	FG%	3FG%	FT%
1. Maurice Carter	2002-03	18.7	43.3%	29.3%	70.2%
2. Karvel Anderson	2013-14	18.6	50.4%	47.3%	70.8%
3. Chaz McCrommon	2003-04	18.2	58.3%	38.5%	78.0%
4. A.J. Jackson	2006-07	17.9	42.2%	30.5%	81.6%
5. Myron Walker	1991-92	17.8	46.7%	27.8%	79.6%

Billy The Kid - No member of the Colonials is playing with more confidence right now than junior forward Billy Giles. Giles notched the first double-double of his career against Oakland (12/5/15) thanks to 16 points and 10 rebounds and has now reached double figures in scoring in three of his last four games. Since being held scoreless in his first two games in a Robert Morris uniform, Giles has averaged 9.7 points and 6.1 rebounds over his last seven games while shooting 62.2 percent (28-for-45) from the field. He also leads the Northeast Conference in field goal percentage at 59.6 percent (28-for-47).
 
Hot Rod - Senior guard Rodney Pryor has picked up where he left off from last season in the early portion of the 2015-16 season. Thanks to a career-high 35 points against Oakland (12/5/15), Pryor enters Monday's game @ Columbia having reached double figures in scoring in each of his last 19 games dating back to last season. During that stretch, Pryor is averaging 20.8 points per contest while converting an average of 2.95 three-pointers per game. Pryor is looking to become the just the fourth player in school history to score in double figures in 20 consecutive games Monday @ Columbia and the first in over a decade. A look at the three previous Colonials to turn the trick ...
 

Name	No.	PPG	Dates
1. Maurice Carter	40	17.0	12/14/02 to 1/26/04
2. Myron Walker	26	20.1	12/28/91 to 12/1/92
3. Gabe Jackson	20	18.7	1/3/95 to 2/21/95

 
Block Party - Sophomore forward Elijah Minnie set an RMU single-season school record for blocks in his rookie campaign last year by recording 36 rejections, and he continues to protect the rim in 2015-16. Minnie finished with a pair of blocks @ Youngstown State (12/2/15) and in eight games this year has already recorded 15 rejections. Minnie leads the Northeast Conference in blocks per game (1.88) and has accumulated a total of 51 rejections in 40 career contests, an average of 1.28 per game.
 
The Floor General - The 2015-16 campaign marks junior guard Kavon Stewart's second full season as the starting point guard for Robert Morris. He enters Monday's game @ Columbia with 275 career assists in 73 games, an average of 3.76 per contest. Stewart needs 25 dimes to become the 14th player in program history to eclipse 300 career assists and is 110 dimes short of cracking the top 10 in school history in the category. Stewart is also RMU's active leader in steals with 101 career thefts.
 
The Chase For 1,000 - Senior guard Rodney Pryor is RMU's active leading scorer with 737 points as the Colonials return to action after a week off Monday @ Columbia. Pryor has scored a team-high 191 points in nine games, a year after leading the Colonials with 546 points last season, and he is looking to become the second player in the last three years to eclipse the 1,000-point plateau in just two seasons at RMU. Former guard Karvel Anderson scored 1,123 points in 69 career games from 2012 to 2014. Pryor needs to average 11.9 points over RMU's final 22 games of the 2015-16 campaign to eclipse 1,000 career points. He would be the fourth player in school history, and third at the Division I level, to score at least 1,000 points while playing just two years.
 
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