Moon Township, Pa. – The
Robert Morris University men's basketball team opened a two-game homestand Thursday at the North Athletic Complex with a 72-59 win over Bryant. In snapping a two-game slide, the Colonials improved to 13-11 overall and 8-3 in the Northeast Conference.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Trailing, 47-43, with 9:21 to play, RMU used a 17-1 run to grab a 60-48 lead with 4:03 remaining. Junior forward
Yannis Mendy capped the run with a layup off a feed from sophomore guard
Jon Williams, while sophomore forward
Chris Coalmon was the main offensive force during the surge. He scored 10 consecutive points for Robert Morris and finished the contest with a career-high 12 points.
PERFECT NIGHT
Coalmon produced a perfect shooting night for the Colonials, finishing 5-for-5 from the field, including 1-for-1 from beyond the arc, and knocking down his only attempt at the free-throw line. He also added six rebounds and posted a team-high plus/minus of +20. He's the first student-athlete from RMU to post a perfect shooting night since former forward Conrad Stephens (2014-17) shot 6-for-6 from the floor for 13 points in a 64-58 victory over Fairleigh Dickinson (1/16/16) at the Charles L. Sewall Center.
QUOTABLE
"After I saw the first one go in, I thought maybe I should keep shooting," Coalmon said. "It feels good that your teammates keep passing you the ball when you're on fire, and you're teammates feel good for you when you're hitting shots like that, too. When we play defense we get hyped up. That makes it easier for us to make shots."
SLOW START
Robert Morris shot just 28.6 percent (8-for-28) from the field in the first half, including 1-for-13 (7.7%) from beyond the arc. Bryant (8-14 / 5-6 NEC) jumped out to a 6-0 lead and led the entire first half. The Bulldogs had their biggest lead, 16-7, after a three-point play from Joe Kasperzyk at the 10:11 mark of the first half. The Colonials picked up just their second win of the season in 11 games when trailing at the half.
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"A really important win for us," head coach
Andrew Toole said. "It was a good kind of test on how we could handle a little bit of discomfort and adversity in the first half. I thought if we could keep the pace in the second half we would get our opportunities."
BALANCE BEAM
Mendy paced the Colonials with 14 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the floor, scoring 12 of his points after halftime. He also tied for game-high honors in rebounds with six. Coalmon scored 10 of his 12 points after halftime, while sophomore forward
Charles Bain and sophomore guard
Jon Williams each finished with 10 points. Bain also grabbed six boards, while Williams dished out seven assists.
QUOTABLE
"(Chris) is a guy that is shooting great percentages and when he's active he has all the tools," Toole said. "I thought the first time he went out there he didn't have the urgency that we needed. He can shoot it, he can pass it, he can handle it. When he went back in, he got a couple of big rebounds and you could just see there was better body language to him. He was key."
DOWN THE LINE
Robert Morris, which is allowing an average of 60.9 points per game in home tilts, has now won 17 consecutive games when holding opponents to less than 60 points dating back to the 2016-17 campaign.
UP NEXT
The Colonials conclude a two-game homestand Saturday, Feb. 9, with a 4:00 p.m. tip against Central Connecticut State in a game that can be seen live on ESPN+.
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