Moon Township, Pa. – The
Robert Morris University men's basketball team let a 12-point advantage in the second half slip away as Bryant used a late surge to grab a 59-56 victory Saturday at the Charles L. Sewall Center.
Freshman forward
Braden Burke knocked down a pair at the stripe with 16:03 to play to give the Colonials their biggest lead of the contest, 38-26. Bryant chipped away, but RMU held its lead in double digits, 45-34, after senior guard
Kavon Stewart converted a layup at the 11:36 mark of the second half.
In just over a minute, the Bulldogs (6-15, 3-5 NEC) trimmed their deficit to 45-41 with seven quick points. Marcel Pettway converted in the lane, and Nisre Zouzoua connected from beyond the arc, the first three-pointer of the contest for Bryant. During the Zouzoua triple, Stewart was called for a flagrant foul, and Zouzoua hit a pair at the free-throw line to cap the surge.
RMU (7-14, 3-5 NEC) stemmed the tide and pushed its lead to 47-41 with 9:27 to go thanks to a Stewart jumper. Bryant, however, scored the next eight points of the contest to grab its first lead since early in the game, 49-47, with 4:51 left. Pettway pushed the Bulldogs in front by converting in the paint.
Stewart would give back the lead to Robert Morris, 50-49, with a three-point play courtesy of a layup and foul by Adam Grant. Sebastian Townes, however, would hit a pair of free throws with 3:38 remaining to give the Bulldogs the lead for good.
The Colonials had a pair of chances inside 25 seconds to either take the lead or tie it, but three-point attempts, both from sophomore guard
Isaiah Still, were off the mark. His first look came with 22 ticks left and RMU trailing, 56-54, and his final attempt with four seconds on the clock to tie was strong.
"I thought we played really well for about 30 minutes, but we couldn't finish the game," head coach Andre Toole said. "It's extremely frustrating, but that's a word that has been associated with our season. We had open looks at the end, and they were good looks, but we didn't knock them down."
Robert Morris owned a 29-22 halftime lead and sophomore guard
Matty McConnell knocked down a three-pointer to open the scoring in the second half to give the Colonials a 32-22 advantage. Freshman guard
Dachon Burke converted back-to-back layups to keep RMU's lead in double digits, 36-26, before
Braden Burke was sent to the chalk and hit a pair to open up the biggest lead of the game.
Dachon Burke reached double figures for the fourth consecutive game and led RMU with a career-high 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the floor while also going 4-for-4 at the stripe. He also added six rebounds and a steal. Stewart also reached double figures with 13 points and added five steals.
Pettway paced Bryant with a double-double courtesy of 18 points and 11 rebounds. Townes added 11 points off the bench, while Zouzoua added 11 despite a 3-for-12 night shooting, including 1-for-6 from beyond the arc.
Robert Morris takes to the road for its next four contests, beginning Thursday, Jan. 26, with a 7:00 p.m. tip at Mount St. Mary's.
Stat Of The Night
25 – Percent shooting (4-for-16) for Robert Morris in the final 10:46 of the game after the Colonials opened up an 11-point advantage
