Moon Township, Pa. – The RMU men's basketball team concluded its first two-game set in Horizon League action Sunday with an 87-82 loss to Purdue Fort Wayne at the Hilliard Gates Sports Center. The Colonials slipped to 2-3 (.400) overall on the 2020-21 campaign, including a 1-1 (.500) in the Horizon League.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Tied, 20-20, the Mastodons scored the next 10 points of the contest to grab their first double-digit advantage. The run swelled to 24-5 as Purdue Fort Wayne grabbed a 44-25 lead with just 2:31 left before the break after a layup from Ra Kpedi. The Mastodons ended up shooting 65.5 percent (20-for-31) from the field in the first 20 minutes of action, including 66.7 percent (6-for-9) from beyond the arc. Jarred Godfrey was the main offensive force for Purdue Fort Wayne in the first half, scoring 12 points while also grabbing five rebounds, dishing out three assists and notching three steals.
NOT COOLING OFF
Purdue Fort Wayne kept up its hot shooting in the second half, grabbing a 68-44 advantage with 13:09 to go after a jumper from Godfrey. At that point, the Mastodons were converting 69 percent (29-for-42) of their attempts from the field. Purdue Fort Wayne finished the game with a field goal percentage of 64.2 percent (34-for-53), shooting better from beyond the arc at 64.7 percent (11-for-17). Godfrey posted an all-around performance for the Mastodons, recording a double-double with 27 points and 10 caroms while also recording five assists and five steals.
QUOTABLE
"We just weren't ready to compete," RMU Pat Gallagher Head Coach
Andrew Toole said. "We were too casual with the ball in the first half, which led to too many uncontested layups and scoring opportunities for them in transition. We weren't active enough and did not play as hard as you need to play, then find yourself in a hole down 19 and decide to play. Usually that is a recipe for disaster and it was. We win the game yesterday and unfortunately did not come as prepared as we needed to be. It will be determined in the next few weeks how we respond. If we learn a lesson of how to play 80 minutes of basketball over two days then we'll say we learned a lot. If we continue to make some of the same mistakes, then we'll keep being taught a lesson until we can figure it out."
CHARGE
Despite falling down by 24, the Colonials clawed back, using a 19-2 surge to trim their deficit to 68-63 with 7:41 remaining. Freshman guard
Trayden Williams ignited the run with a three-pointer, while freshman guard
Kam Farris capped it with a triple of his own.
Trayden Williams hit a pair of three-pointers during the run, while senior guard
Jon Williams connected for another.
STEPPING UP
Bobby Planutis hit a pair of big three-pointers for the Mastodons to help keep the Colonials at bay. His triple at the 5:18 mark of the second half gave Purdue Fort Wayne a 73-65 edge, and he drained another on the next possession after a jumper from junior guard
Dante Treacy to push the lead for the Mastodons to 76-67. Planutis finished 4-for-7 from downtown and scored 13 points for Purdue Fort Wayne.
ROLLING RIGHT ALONG
Senior forward
AJ Bramah paced the Colonials with 23 points and also finished with eight rebounds, converting nine of his 16 attempts from the floor while also going 5-for-7 at the free-throw line. Bramah has led the Colonials in scoring in each of RMU's first five games of the 2020-21 campaign, averaging 21.4 points per game over that span. It's the highest points per game average through five games on record in program history, eclipsing the 20.4 points former forward AJ Jackson (2003-08) averaged through RMU's first five contests of the 2006-07 campaign.
THE SECONDARY
While Bramah has been the leading scorer each of RMU's first five games of the 2020-21 campaign, senior guard
Jon Williams is stepping up to become the secondary scorer the Colonials need. He finished with 16 points Sunday against Purdue Fort Wayne and also added five assists in a team-high 35 minutes of action. Williams concluded RMU's three-game road trip averaging 16.0 points and 6.0 assists per contest while knocking down 60.9 percent (14-for-23) of his attempts from beyond the arc. More importantly, he suffered just four turnovers in that same stretch, recording an assist-to-turnover ratio of 4.50.
UP NEXT
RMU returns home to the UPMC Events Center for its first Horizon League home games with a two-game set against Milwaukee. The Colonials open the series with the Panthers Friday, Jan. 1, with a 1:00 p.m. tip on the first day of 2021. RMU also hosts the Panthers Saturday, Jan. 2, at Noon.
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