Moon Township, Pa. – The RMU men's basketball team concluded its 2021-22 regular season Saturday, falling to Wright State, 71-61, at the Nutter Center in Dayton, Ohio. The Colonials enter the 2022 Horizon League Tournament with an overall record of 7-23 (.233).
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
A back-and-forth first half, the Colonials closed the opening 20 minutes with a 6-2 spurt to grab a 32-29 advantage at halftime. Grant Basile gave Wright State (18-13 / 15-7 #HLMBB) a 27-26 edge with 3:45 to go in the first half with a layup, but RMU received a dunk from senior forward
Kahliel Spear to jump back in front while junior guard
Michael Green III hit a jumper and junior forward
Brandon Stone a layup with 23 seconds remaining in the first half to give the Colonials a three-point cushion. Stone scored nine points in the first half as RMU knocked down 48.3 percent (14-for-29) of its attempts from the floor.
QUOTABLE
"We had about 24 minutes of good basketball and then some chinks in the armor exposed themselves," RMU Pat Gallagher Head Coach
Andrew Toole said. "The effort and the fight was where it needed to be, but we just couldn't sustain the effort over 40 minutes. That's one of our standards is sustained effort. That isn't built during games. It happens during practice and workouts and lifts. Guys believe they can play, but it's got to be day in and day out."
SILENT RUNNING
Junior forward
Matt Mayers opened the scoring in the second half with a turnaround jumper, and sophomore guard
Enoch Cheeks followed with a three-pointer to give RMU its largest lead, 37-29. The Raiders were able to take control thanks to an 18-2 surge that turned a 43-40 deficit into a 58-45 advantage with 9:08 to play. Wright State hit a trio of three-pointers during the deciding run, including a pair from Trey Calvin and another from Basile. In 33 minutes, Basile finished with 20 points, eight rebounds, two assists, two steals and four rejections, converting eight of his 11 shots from the field, including a 2-for-3 performance from beyond the arc. Calvin added 18 for the Raiders, while Tanner Holden notched 16 points, eight boards and three dimes.
QUOTABLE
"Good teams apply the pressure in the right places," Toole said. "If you're not sprinting back at full speed on defense, then you give up a transition three. Those are the types of things that we can't allow to let happen, and that happened tonight. Where we get ourselves in trouble is that we have a tendency to let one bad thing that happens spiral into something more. We just weren't able to get stops or defend when we needed to. Wright State moves the ball so well. You have to be able to withstand the pressure they put on you, and we weren't able to do that."
INSIDE THE BOXSCORE
Spear paced the Colonials with 14 points and also added seven rebounds. He knocked down each of his six attempts from the free-throw line and was 4-for-12 from the field. Stone and junior forward
Jaron Williams each contributed 13 points, with the duo combining to convert 12 of their 21 attempts (57.1%) of their shots from the floor.
UP NEXT
RMU enters the 2022 Horizon League Tournament as the No. 10 seed. The Colonials will travel to Youngstown, Ohio, Tuesday for a 7:00 p.m. tip against No. 7 seed Youngstown State at the Beeghly Center. The two teams split the 2021-22 season series, with each team winning on the other's home court.
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"(Youngstown State) has been playing some really good basketball, and we have to be ready to go," Toole said. "If there's any time to flip the switch that everyone thinks can be flipped, now would be the time."
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