GAME 31
Robert Morris (10-20, 8-9 NEC) @ Wagner (19-9, 11-6 NEC)
Saturday, February 27, 2016 • 4:00 p.m.
Spiro Sports Center (2,100) • Staten Island, N.Y.

Radio: ESPN 970 AM & 106.3 FM
Radio Talent: Chris Shovlin (pxp) & Jim Duzyk (color)
Video: NECFrontRow.com • RMUColonials.com
Twitter: @RMUMBasketball • Instagram: @RMUMBasketball
 
Quick Hits
 
- The Robert Morris University men's basketball team wraps up its 2015-16 regular season Saturday with a 4:00 p.m. tip against Wagner on Staten Island, N.Y., at the Spiro Sports Center.
 
- The Colonials picked up their third win in the last four games thanks to a 73-63 victory @ Sacred Heart (2/25/16) in their last contest. Senior guard Rodney Pryor paced RMU with a game-high 26 points while adding nine rebounds, two blocks and two steals.
 
- Junior forward Billy Giles contributed 16 points, nine rebounds and two blocks in the win over the Pioneers, while freshman guard Isaiah Still finished with 13 points and two assists. Junior guard Kavon Stewart also reached double figures in scoring, contributing 11 points while adding five rebounds and six assists.
 
- Thanks to its victory @ Sacred Heart (2/25/16), Robert Morris improved 36-11 (.766) in six seasons under head coach Andrew Toole in the month of February. Senior guard Rodney Pryor has averaged 17.4 points and 9.4 rebounds in seven games this month.
 
- RMU wrapped up the home portion of its 2015-16 slate with an 82-72 setback to St. Francis Brooklyn (2/20/16) at the Charles L. Sewall Center. Senior forward Rodney Pryor paced the Colonials with 14 points and grabbed five rebounds, while junior forward Billy Giles contributed 13 points, three boards and two blocks.
 
- Robert Morris opened its final homestand with a 74-67 win over LIU Brooklyn (2/18/16). The win helped RMU clinch a spot in the Northeast Conference Tournament for the 13th consecutive season. Senior guard Rodney Pryor led Robert Morris by garnering game-high honors in both points (24) and rebounds (9) while recording two steals.
 
- Freshman guard Steven Whitley scored a career-high 16 points in the win over the Blackbirds, junior guard Kavon Stewart finished with 13 points, eight assists and three steals and junior forward Billy Giles contributed 11 points and five boards.
 
- Senior guard Rodney Pryor became the 24th member of the RMU 1,000-Point Club by connecting for a pair of free throws with 37 seconds to play against LIU Brooklyn (2/18/16). Pryor eclipsed the mark in 60 career games, the second fastest mark in school history. Only all-time leading scorer Myron Walker (1990-94) did it quicker, reaching the threshold in 55 career contests.
 
- Prior to defeating LIU Brooklyn, Robert Morris earned a 72-70 victory @ Fairleigh Dickinson (2/13/16). Senior guard Rodney Pryor notched his seventh double-double of the 2015-16 campaign to pace the Colonials against the Knights with 27 points and a career-high 14 rebounds. He also finished with three assists and three steals in the win.
 
- Junior forward Billy Giles contributed 18 points on 9-of-11 shooting from the field while recording five rebounds and two blocks in the win over Fairleigh Dickinson. Junior guard Kavon Stewart finished with 11 points and six assists.


 
Sacred Heart Tidbits - The Colonials snapped a two-game slide against the Pioneers and improved to 20-10 (.667) all-time in the all-time series ... Robert Morris has four of its last five meetings over Sacred Heart at the William H. Pitt Center ... RMU held SHU to two field goals over the final 11:15 of action ... The Colonials forced more turnovers than committing for the sixth time in the last eight games, turning 15 miscues by the Pioneers into 19 points ... Junior guard Kavon Stewart dished out a game-high six assists against two turnovers and in RMU's 10 wins owns 54 assists against 30 miscues, an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.80 ... Stewart also scored 11 points in the win over the Pioneers, helping Robert Morris improve to 15-11 (.577) in the last three years when he reaches double figures in scoring.
 
Free Is For Me - Robert Morris went to the free-throw line a season-high 35 times in a 73-63 victory @ Sacred Heart (2/25/16), converting a season-high 24 (68.6 percent). Getting to the charity stripe at least 30 times in a game is a good sign for the Colonials. RMU owns a record of 20-8 (.714) in six seasons under head coach Andrew Toole when visiting the chalk at least 30 times in a contest.
 
Billy The Kid - Since the calendar switched to February, there hasn't been a hotter member of the Colonials than junior forward Billy Giles. Giles, the only student-athlete to play all 30 games for Robert Morris this season, has scored in double figures in each of his last seven games entering RMU's regular-season finale Saturday @ Wagner, averaging 15.0 points and 6.1 rebounds over that span while shooting a white hot 71.6 percent (48-for-67) from the field. Giles, who overall on the 2015-16 campaign leads the Northeast Conference in field goal percentage (.612), is looking to become just the fourth student-athlete in program history to shoot at least 60 percent from the field in a season. His current success rate ranks third in the RMU single-season record book.
 
Get To The Rim - Robert Morris concludes the 2015-16 regular season in the midst of its best stretch of the year offensively despite struggling to convert from beyond the arc. Over its last six games, a stretch in which the Colonials are 4-2 (.667), RMU has converted 53.8 percent (136-for-253) of its two-point field goal attempts and 46.3 percent (161-for-348) overall. Robert Morris has scored at least 40 points in the paint in three of its last six games as well as four of its last eight contests. During the month of February, the Colonials are averaging 38.0 points in the paint per game. RMU's frontcourt that consists of junior forwards Billy Giles and Conrad Stephens and sophomore forward Andre Frederick have combined to shoot 68.8 percent (64-for-93) from the field this month.
 
Still Of The Night - Freshman guard Isaiah Still has been a consistent presence on offense as Robert Morris hits the stretch run of the 2015-16 campaign. Still has reached double figures in each of his last six games entering RMU's regular-season finale Saturday @ Wagner, averaging 16.8 points and 4.2 rebounds over that span. Where Still has really excelled has been at the free-throw line. Over his last five games, Still has converted 79.5 percent (31-for-39) of his attempts at the stripe, averaging 7.8 trips to the line per game. In 22 games prior to that stretch, Still shot 62.5 percent (45-for-72) at the chalk.
 
Pryor Commitment - Senior guard Rodney Pryor helped RMU secure a 73-63 victory @ Sacred Heart (2/25/16) by scoring a game-high 26 points. Pryor's performance marked the 23rd time in his career he has eclipsed the 20-point plateau, tying former Colonials Chipper Harris (1980-84) and Chaz McCrommon (2000-05) for seventh place in school history for 20-point scoring games. Overall, Pryor has reached double figures in scoring 52 times in his two-year career. Pryor enters RMU's regular-season finale @ Wagner Saturday having scored at least 20 points in 10 of the 16 road games he's played in this season, averaging 19.8 points per contest over that span. 
 
The Floor General - The 2015-16 campaign marks junior guard Kavon Stewart's second full season as the starting point guard for Robert Morris. Thanks to a game-high six assists in RMU's 2015-16 Northeast Conference opener against Sacred Heart (1/2/16), Stewart became the 14th player in program history to eclipse 300 career assists. He enters Saturday's game with 378 career assists in 93 games, an average of 4.06 per contest, and is seven dimes short of cracking the top 10 in school history in the category. Stewart is also RMU's active leader in steals with 141 career thefts.
 
Defense Wins Championships - At the heart of the resurgence of the Robert Morris basketball program since 2007-08 is defense. Thanks to a 73-63 victory @ Sacred Heart (2/25/16) that opened RMU's final road swing of the 2015-16 campaign, Robert Morris improved to 146-35 (.807) over the last nine seasons when holding their opponent to under 70 points. In six years under Andrew Toole, the Colonials own a mark of 93-27 (.775) when turning the trick. Overall in the last nine years, RMU has held its opponent to under 70 points 58.6 percent (181-of-309) of the time.

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