GAME 5
Robert Morris (0-4) @ Kansas State (3-0) – Barclays Classic
Tuesday, November 22, 2016 • 8:00 p.m.
Bramlage Coliseum (12,528) • Manhattan, Kansas

Radio: iHeart Radio App (keyword RMU)
Radio Talent: Chris Shovlin (pxp) & Jim Duzyk (color)
TV: Fox Sports Kansas City / ESPN3.com
TV Talent: Ben Boyle (pxp) & Stan Weber (color)
 
Quick Hits
 
- The Robert Morris University men's basketball team continues a six-game road trip as well as play in the Barclays Classic Tuesday with an 8:00 p.m. tip against Kansas State at Bramlage Coliseum.
 
- The Colonials opened play in the Barclays Classic with an 81-69 setback @ Richmond (11/20/16). Sophomore guard Isaiah Still paced RMU with a game-high 20 points, converting six of his 12 shots from the floor, including 3-of-5 from beyond the arc, while also going 5-for-6 at the free-throw line. Still also posted three assists and established a career high with four steals.
 
- Senior guard Kavon Stewart became the 10th player in school history to eclipse 400 career dimes @ Richmond (11/20/16), as his five assists against the Spiders pushed his career total to 402.
 
- Senior forward Aaron Tate, who played only three games in 2015-16 before suffering a season-ending injury, paced the Colonials in rebounds @ Richmond (11/20/16) with nine and is RMU's active career leader in caroms with 341. Tate leads the Colonials and ranks sixth in the Northeast Conference with an average of 7.3 rebounds per game.
 
- Prior to its game @ Richmond (11/20/16), Robert Morris dropped a 75-62 decision @ Bucknell (11/16/16). Senior forward Billy Giles paced RMU with 18 points and six rebounds, converting eight of his 10 shots from the floor while going 2-for-2 at the free-throw line. Sophomore guard Matty McConnell added 13 points.
 
- Robert Morris opened its six-game road swing with a 78-72 setback @ DePaul (11/13/16). Sophomore guard Isaiah Still led RMU by scoring 17 of his career-high 26 points in the second half. He finished 10-for-17 shooting from the field, including 4-for-8 from beyond the arc, and went 2-for-3 at the free-throw line.
 
- Senior guard Kavon Stewart added 13 points, four rebounds, five assists and four steals against the Blue Demons, while freshman guard Dachon Burke tallied six points, five rebounds and four steals.
 
- The Colonials christened the 2016-17 campaign and their 41st season of Division I basketball with a 67-50 setback to Penn (11/11/16) at the Charles L. Sewall Center. Sophomore guard Isaiah Still paced RMU with 15 points and added six rebounds and a steal.
 
- Robert Morris returns three starters and nine letterwinners from a 2015-16 squad that finished with an overall record of 10-22 (.313), including a mark of 8-10 (.444) in the Northeast Conference.

- RMU was tabbed sixth in the 2016 NEC Preseason Coaches Poll, the program's lowest preseason prediction since being selected to finish 10th in 2005. The Colonials had been picked to finish in the top three, but never the preseason favorite, for 10 consecutive years from 2006 to 2015.


 
Richmond Tidbits - Sunday's game against the Spiders marked the first game in the all-time series between the two programs ... RMU held its first lead of the 2016-17 season against Richmond and owned an 18-10 advantage at the 12:46 mark of the first half ... The Spiders outscored the Colonials, 36-24, in points in the paint, while Robert Morris held an 18-7 advantage in second-chance points ... Richmond shot 50 percent (12-for-24) from the field in the second half, including 50 percent (4-for-8) from beyond the arc, and 82.4 percent (14-for-17) at the free-throw line.
 
20/20 - Sophomore guard Isaiah Still celebrated his 20th birthday in RMU's opening game of the Barclays Classic @ Richmond (11/20/16) and took home game-high honors for scoring with 20 points. Still shot 6-of-12 from the floor against the Spiders, including 3-for-5 from deep, and a 5-for-6 performance at the free-throw line. He also tallied three assists and established a career high with four steals against the Spiders. Still's performance @ Richmond marked the second time in four games this season he's eclipsed the 20-point plateau, as he led the Colonials with a career-high 26 points @ DePaul (11/13/16). Still has reached double figures in scoring in 11 of his last 12 games dating back to last season and over that stretch has produced an average of 16.5 points per game.
 
Under/Over - The 2016-17 version of the Colonials are one of the youngest teams in head coach Andrew Toole's seven-year tenure at RMU, as three freshman and three sophomores help make up the rotation. Through the first four games of the year, the Robert Morris underclassmen have supplied the Colonials with 51.1 percent (409-of-800) of the minutes played and 59.7 percent (151-of-253) of their scoring.
 
At It Again - Senior forward Billy Giles paced Robert Morris @ Bucknell (11/16/16) with 18 points and six rebounds and has proven to be a rock for the Colonials at the rim. Giles hit eight of his 10 shots from the floor agianst the Bison and also went 2-for-2 at the free-throw line. In four games, Giles is shooting 64 percent (16-for-25) from the floor, which ranks third in the Northeast Conference. The early-season performance from Giles shouldn't come as a surprise, as he led the Northeast Conference last season in field goal percentage at 60.6 percent (120-for-198). Over his last 12 games dating to last season, Giles is averaging 12.1 points per game while shooting 69.2 percent (63-for-91) from the field.
 
Board Stiff - Robert Morris is coming off a 2015-16 campaign in which it ranked ninth in the Northeast Conference in rebounding offense, grabbing an average of 32.5 caroms per contest. Bolstered by the return of redshirt senior forward Aaron Tate, the Colonials have gotten off to a solid start rebounding in the first four games of 2016-17. RMU has been either even or better in each of its first four games this season, including a season-high 44 caroms in its 2016-17 season opener against Penn. In 2015-16, Robert Morris eclipsed 40 rebounds in a game just four times, going 3-1 (.750) in those contests. In three games this year the Colonials have pulled down an average of 39.2 rebounds per game and own a rebounding margin of +1.8.
 
The Floor General - Thanks to five assists @ Richmond (11/20/16) in RMU's first game of the Barclays Classic, senior guard Kavon Stewart became the 10th player in program history to eclipse 400 career assists. Stewart enters Tuesday's game @ Kansas State with 402 career assists and needs 33 to move into ninth place all-time in school history. Stewart would need to average 5.7 assists per game over RMU's final 27 games of the 2016-17 regular season to become the program's all-time leader in dimes. The RMU career school record of 555 assists was established by former guard Forest Grant from 1980 to 1984. 

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