Loretto, Pa. – The
Robert Morris University men's basketball team concluded its 2017-18 regular season Saturday with an 80-60 loss to Saint Francis U at DeGol Arena.
The Colonials will enter the 2018 Northeast Conference Tournament as the No. 7 seed and will travel to Emmitsburg, Md., to take on No. 2 Mount St. Mary's in the quarterfinals.
The Red Flash grabbed an early 9-3 lead before RMU scored the next nine points to grab a 12-9 advantage. Junior guard
Matty McConnell scored five points during the surge, while freshman forward
Koby Thomas hit a jumper and a floater in the lane.
Tied, 14-14, with 12:02 left in the first half, junior forward
Seth Rouse came off the bench and connected for a corner three-pointer to give Robert Morris a 17-14 lead. Saint Francis responded with an 11-0 surge to open up a 25-17 advantage with 8:37 to play before the break.
RMU chipped away, closing to within 34-31 with 1:55 left in the first half after a 1-for-2 performance at the free-throw line by freshman forward
Charles Bain, but the Red Flash got a three-pointer from Andre Wolford and a layup from Daniel Wallace to grab a 39-31 cushion.
Bain hit a jumper at the end of the first half to pull the Colonials to within 39-33 at halftime and used an 8-2 spurt in the opening minutes of the second half to trim SFU's lead to 43-41 with 16:35 to play. Sophomore guard
Dachon Burke scored five points, while freshman guard
Jon Williams connected from beyond the arc.
Jamaal King, who scored a game-high 26 points for Saint Francis, stemmed the tide with a layup, which ignited a 10-0 run to push the Red Flash lead back to double digits, 53-41.
Burke paced Robert Morris with 14 points and added four assists and two steals, while Williams chipped in 12 points.
King was joined in double figures by Andre Wolford (21) and Keith Braxton (19) as SFU shot an even 50 percent (29-for-58) from the field, including 53.8 percent (14-for-26) in the second half.
RMU converted just 30 percent (9-for-30) of its shots in the second half and was 36.8 percent (21-for-57) from the field overall.
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