Moon Township, Pa. – The RMU men's basketball team dropped its third consecutive game Friday, falling to Cleveland State, 57-55, at the Wolstein Center to open a two-game road trip. The Colonials slipped to 11-15 (.423) overall during the 2022-23 season, including 6-9 (.400) in the Horizon League.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
A tip-in from Deante Johnson with two seconds left helped give the Vikings the victory after Cleveland State coughed up a 15-point lead. RMU had grabbed a 55-53 edge after sophomore guard
Jackson Last got into the paint and hit a jumper with 1:08 remaining, but Drew Lowder answered for CSU (15-11 / 10-5 #HLMBB) with a jumper of his own to tie it with 46 seconds to play. Out of a timeout, junior guard
Enoch Cheeks was called for an offensive foul, turning the ball over and setting up the final turn of events. The Vikings missed a pair of layups before Johnson was able to capitalize and point Cleveland State over the top.
QUOTABLE
"We're creating opportunities, but we're coming up short," RMU Pat Gallagher Head Coach
Andrew Toole said. "The communication is where it needs to be. I don't know why we can't seem to start the game with the urgency that is required. Credit our guys for battling back, but we all need to be ready to go from the jump and handle the responsibility when you touch down, whether you're a starter or coming off the bench. Unfortunately there aren't any mulligans in basketball."
DEEP THOUGHTS
Offensive at a premium in the early going, Cleveland State grabbed a 10-2 lead after a three-pointer from Lowder, and the cushion bulged to 17-3 at the 10:29 mark of the first half after Yahel Hill hit a jumper in the lane. The Vikings owned their biggest advantage with 9:20 in the first half after Hill was fouled on an attempt from beyond the arc by senior guard
Michael Green III. Hill promptly connected on each of his attempts at the stripe to give CSU a 20-5 lead. Trailing, 27-12, the Colonials made a push, using a 17-3 run to end the opening 20 minutes to close to within 30-29 at the break. Cheeks began the run with a three-pointer and scored seven points during the surge.
SEVEN
Friday marked the seventh time in 13 years under Toole the Colonials have erased a deficit of at least 15 points. The last occurrence came in the quarterfinals of the 2019 Northeast Conference (NEC) Tournament, when RMU fell behind against St. Francis Brooklyn (3/6/19), 31-16, with 2:30 to go in the first half at the North Athletic Complex. The Colonials battled back to send the game to overtime, where RMU earned a 69-65 triumph. The largest deficit to be erased under Toole, ironically, also came at the North Athletic Complex but was a game RMU dropped. The Colonials trailed Siena (12/8/18), 55-37, with 16:25 to play, only to roar back and take a 69-65 lead before falling with 2.1 seconds left, 74-71, on a three-pointer.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Cheeks paced the Colonials with 17 points, five assists and four blocks while also grabbing three rebounds, but it was freshman
Stephaun Walker who was a key piece for RMU in erasing a 15-point deficit. He notched his second career double-double thanks to 10 points and 10 rebounds despite being saddled with four fouls and logging 23-and-a-half minutes. Of his 10 boards, five came on the offensive glass. Fifth-year forward
Kahliel Spear fell just one rebound shy of posting his fourth straight double-double, finishing with 11 points.
QUOTABLE
"(Stephaun) played a great game," Toole said. "He needs to be smarter on some of his fouls, but he had a couple of put backs that kept us in the game early on. Then we started to guard. We were able to string together some stops to get ourselves back into the game. Unfortunately we just can't sustain that effort and take care of all the details that are necessary to win."
UP NEXT
RMU heads to Fort Wayne, Ind., for the first of two games in the Hoosier State to conclude the road portion of its 2022-23 schedule. The Colonials will take on Purdue Fort Wayne Sunday, Feb. 12, at 1:00 p.m. before returning home for a three-game homestand at the UPMC Events Center. The final game of the regular season for RMU comes at IUPUI Thursday, Feb. 23.
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