Moon Township, Pa. – The
Robert Morris University men's basketball team opened the 2020 Northeast Conference (NEC) Tournament Wednesday with a 59-58 victory over No. 8 seed St. Francis Brooklyn at Peoples Court at the UPMC Events. The Colonials improved to 18-14 (.562) overall in 2019-20 and advance to the semifinals for the fourth consecutive year as well as the 12th time in the last 13 seasons.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Trailing, 49-45, after a hook shot from Deniz Celen of the Terriers, RMU used a 13-2 run to grab a 58-51 advantage with 1:19 remaining. Redshirt senior guard
Josh Williams opened the surge with a three-pointer, the first of the second half for the Colonials, while junior forward
AJ Bramah contributed six points, including a dunk with 2:04 to go.
CLOSING IN
St. Francis Brooklyn (13-18) chipped away, closing to within 59-58 with 17.4 seconds left after a three-pointer from the top of the arc from Chauncey Hawkins, who scored a game-high 23 points for the Terriers. Junior guard
Jon Williams was fouled with 14.6 seconds to play but missed the front end of a one-on-one situation, with Yaradyah Evans pulling down the carom. In the waning seconds, Larry Moreno got a running jumper off just outside the paint, but the shot was strong, and sophomore guard
Dante Treacy came down with the rebound on the weak side to seal the win for Robert Morris.
QUOTABLE
"An exciting finish," RMU Pat Gallagher Head Coach
Andrew Toole said. "I'm proud of our guys for coming up with the stops that we needed. The second half offensively didn't flow as well as we would of liked, but we were able to figure it out. That's what conference tournament basketball is. It can be crazy, it can be wild but the idea and the objective is to live another day. I was proud of the way guys continued to focus on the things that were important, even as it got a little shaky at the end."
THE BULL
Bramah led the Colonials in his NEC Tournament debut with 22 points and eight rebounds while also adding two blocks, an assist and a steal. He shot 9-for-13 from the field and was a perfect 4-for-4 at the free-throw line. Bramah has now scored in double figures in 26 of his last 27 games. Also reaching double figures for Robert Morris was
Josh Williams, who scored 11 points and compiled five rebounds, two assists and a steal.
START 100
Junior guard
Jon Williams made his 100th career start in the victory over St. Francis Brooklyn in the 2020 NEC Tournament quarterfinals, becoming the fifth player in the program's 44-year history to make 100 career starts. He's the first student-athlete to start at least 100 games since former guard Velton Jones (2008-13), who owns the school record for career starts with 125. Williams failed to score against the Terriers but dished out a game-high six assists and also added two steals as the Colonials finished with 19 assists against 14 turnovers and also recorded 10 thefts.
DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS
RMU improved to 8-1 (.889) in 2019-20 season when holding opponents under 60 points thanks to the win over St. Francis Brooklyn. In 10 seasons under Toole, the Colonials are 53-6 (.898) when turning the trick.
QUOTABLE
"I thought that everybody that hit the court contributed to our win," Toole said. "Some of these guys have been in some of these games but not a lot of these games. Understanding what can happen and what does happen at times is important learning for them. We have an opportunity to teach so we can go out next time and play versus not being able to move on at all."
UP NEXT
Robert Morris will welcome No. 4 seed LIU to the UPMC Events Saturday, March 4, for a 2:00 p.m. tip in the NEC Tournament semifinals. The Colonials and Sharks met just once during the 2019-20 regular season, with RMU posting a 71-66 victory in Brooklyn, N.Y., at the Steinberg Wellness Center Jan. 25, 2020.
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