The surprising Robert Morris Colonials are in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a decade.
Josh Omojafo turned in his first double-double of the season with 24 points and 13 rebounds, and top-seeded Robert Morris punched its ticket to the Big Dance on Tuesday night with an 89-78 victory over No. 4 seed Youngstown State in the Horizon League Tournament championship game at Corteva Coliseum in Indianapolis.
Omojafo, the former Division II star at Gannon, shot 6 for 15 and converted 11 of 14 free throws for the Colonials, who won their 10th consecutive game and 16th in the past 17.
Kam Woods (17), Alvaro Folgueiras (14), Amarion Dickerson (13) and D.J. Smith (11) backed Omojafo in the scoring column for Robert Morris (26-8), which never trailed.
The Colonials, who advanced to the championship game Monday with a 79-76 victory over No. 6 seed Oakland, will learn who they will next face when the NCAA field is finalized Sunday night.
Both teams were bidding for their first Horizon League Tournament championship. Youngstown State was seeking its first trip to the NCAA Tournament as a Division I program.
The Penguins (21-13) last played in the Division II Tournament in 1977.
Juwan Maxey’s 23 points led Youngstown State, which was playing for a sixth consecutive game without leading scorer E.J. Farmer (15.1 ppg), who had been hospitalized with an undisclosed illness.
Nico Galette added 21 points, and 7-foot-3 Gabe Dynes, the nation’s second-leading shot-blocker, finished with 11 points, 10 rebounds and six blocks for the Penguins.
Picked in the preseason to finish ninth among 11 Horizon League teams, Robert Morris got hot after a slow start to the season and raced to the regular-season championship and a No. 1 seed in the Horizon Tournament.
After a first-round bye, the Colonials mowed down three opponents — No. 7 seed Northern Kentucky, Oakland and Youngstown State — to secure the conference’s automatic bid in their fifth season in the league.
Robert Morris weathered multiple runs by Youngstown State throughout the championship game and played for chunks of time in the second half without Dickerson, the Horizon Defensive Player of the Year, who picked up his fourth foul with 12 minutes, 45 seconds left.
The Colonials started hot, scoring the game’s first 11 points, six by Woods. But it didn’t rattle Youngstown State, which clawed back within 17-14 nearly 9 minutes into the first half and stayed close the rest of the way.
Robert Morris led at halftime 34-29.
Youngstown State got within 54-52 with 11:23 left on a 3-point shot by Cris Carroll.
Folgueiras responded with a 3-pointer, and Robert Morris eventually pushed the lead to double digits on another Folgueiras 3 with 4:58 remaining, giving the Colonials a 73-62 advantage.
Their largest lead was 13 points twice after that.
Robert Morris secured its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2015 and the second in Andy Toole’s 15 seasons as coach.
The Colonials won the Northeast Conference Tournament in 2015 and defeated North Florida in an NCAA First Four play-in game before losing to Duke in the first round.
The 2020 team won the NEC Tournament in the program’s final season in the league but couldn’t play in the NCAA Tournament, which was canceled amid the coronavirus pandemic.