Robert Morris’ UPMC Events Center was rocking Thursday night. And why not? The Colonials are a hot ticket these days.
They certainly didn’t disappoint their screaming faithful in passing their first test in the Horizon League Tournament for their eighth consecutive victory and 14th in the past 15 games.
Kam Woods scored 19 points to lead five RMU players in double figures and the top-seeded Colonials beat No. 8 Wright State, 83-62, in a tournament quarterfinal before a record crowd of 4,058 to advance to the semifinals.
Robert Morris (24-8) will face No. 6 Oakland in the semis at 7 p.m. Monday at Corteva Coliseum in Indianapolis. The Golden Grizzlies knocked off No. 3 Milwaukee, 72-64, in the quarterfinals.
“That was an awesome environment for college basketball,” Robert Morris coach Andy Toole said. “Everybody was loud. Everybody was there early. It was great. We’d love for it to be like that all the time. It created an awesome home-court advantage.”
The figure surpassed the previous high of 4,034 for Pitt’s 71-57 victory over Robert Morris on Nov. 12, 2019, in the first game played at UPMC Events Center, which officially opened in May of that year.
D.J. Smith added 14 points and seven assists and Josh Omojafo and Ryan Prather Jr. finished with 13 apiece for Robert Morris.
Horizon League Player of the Year Alvaro Folgueiras, showing no ill effects from a lower body injury that forced him to miss a portion of the Colonials’ regular-season finale a week ago at IU Indianapolis, contributed 12 points and 10 rebounds for his 13th double-double.
“He’s a guy who was really, really locked in these last couple of days at practice, so I felt like he was going to have a strong performances,” Toole said.
Brandon Noel and Michael Imariagbe led Wright State (14-18) with 15 points each. Alex Huibregtse added 13 for the Raiders, who split two regular-season games with the Colonials and handed them their only loss during the current run of success.
The streaking Colonials fell behind early but quickly gathered themselves, using an 11-0 run to overcome a 10-point deficit. They took the lead for good on two free throws by Ismael Plet with 4 minutes, 34 seconds left in the first half for a 30-28 advantage.
“The biggest thing we did was just stay together,” Smith said.
It was part of a 13-3 run that saw Robert Morris hold Wright State scoreless for nearly the final 4:48 if not for Huibregtse’s buzzer-beating 3-point shot before halftime.
“After the first five or six minutes of the game, I thought our performance kind of mirrored the energy in the building,” Toole said. “Once we settled in, our activity defensively was excellent and our ball movement was awesome.”
Added Woods, who connected on 7 of 17 shots: “Just the energy that the crowd brought really gave us momentum.”
Woods also contributed four assists, three rebounds and two steals for the Colonials, who shot 47.4% (Wright State finished at 48.2) and made 10 of 29 3-pointers (34.5%).
RMU outrebounded Wright State 36-25 despite an extended absence by Amarion Dickerson, the Colonials’ second-leading rebounder, whose minutes were shaved by foul trouble.
Trailing 41-31 at halftime, Wright State scored seven consecutive points to close within 64-57 with 7:46 left.
Robert Morris quickly pushed the lead back to double digits on a 3-pointer by Woods slightly more than a minute later, and the Colonials were never threatened the rest of the way.
In other quarterfinals, No. 4 Youngstown State turned back No. 5 Purdue Fort Wayne, 72-67, and No. 2 Cleveland State got past No. 7 Northern Kentucky, 68-63, setting up a Youngstown State-Cleveland State matchup in Monday’s other semifinal at 9:30 p.m.
Robert Morris, which last won a conference championship in its final year in the Northeast Conference in 2020 but had its postseason cancelled when the NCAA Tournament was wiped out by the covid-19 pandemic, is bidding for a return to the tournament for the first time in 10 years.
The Colonials won the NEC Tournament in 2015 for their only NCAA Tournament appearance in Toole’s 15 years as coach and defeated North Florida, 81-77, in a First Four game in Dayton, Ohio, before dropping an 85-56 decision to Duke in a first-round game in Charlotte, N.C.
RMU needs two more victories next week to win the Horizon League’s automatic bid, starting Monday against Oakland (16-17) and renowned coach Greg Kampe, who has amassed 715 victories during a 40-year career.
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The championship game will be played at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Indianapolis.
A year ago at PPG Paints Arena, Oakland shocked No. 3 Kentucky, 80-76, in a first-round game of the NCAA Tournament.
“Every win is hard to get at this time, and coach Kampe is as good as they get,” Toole said. “He can coach any team at any level. … He’s a master of strategy and tactic. It’ll be a tall task. We know that. We’ve got to be at our best. We expect them to be at their best, and that’s what makes it fun.”