The defending champs suddenly are rolling. Surging Robert Morris has come to life in time for the stretch run of the college basketball season with March Madness just around the corner.
Ryan Prather Jr. tied a career high with 25 points to lead the defending Horizon League champion Colonials to an 85-68 victory against Cleveland State on Thursday night at Wolstein Center in Cleveland, their third consecutive win and sixth in the past eight games.
Robert Morris (17-10, 9-7), which climbed into fourth place in the conference standings with four regular-season games remaining, took control of the game with a 21-3 run to close the first half and give the Colonials a 45-33 advantage at halftime.
They trailed 30-24 with 5 minutes, 37 seconds left before halftime, then scored 14 unanswered points to ignite their offense and take the lead for good.
“Our defense did a really good job for the majority of the game,” Robert Morris coach Andy Toole said on the RMU postgame broadcast.
The Colonials shot 51% and assisted on 19 of 32 made baskets. They also overwhelmed the Vikings on the boards, outrebounding Cleveland State, 40-28.
“A couple things that helped us in that first half kind of got us some energy and got us going with some of the offensive rebounding,” Toole said. “We started to get our pace up as we got further into the half. I didn’t like our pace at the beginning of the game.”
That efficient pace continued in the second half, allowing Robert Morris to build a lead of as much as 22 points on two occasions, the last at 85-63 on Prather’s second 3-pointer in a row with 3:29 remaining, RMU’s final points of the night.
Prather finished 10-for-15 shooting, including 5 of 8 from behind the arc, where the Colonials converted 12 of 32 attempts (37.5%). He added a team-high six assists to go with four rebounds.
Darius Livingston, subbing for injured regular point guard Albert Vargas, added 15 points, and DeSean Goode finished with 14 for Robert Morris, which hosts Oakland on Sunday afternoon at UPMC Events Center in a rematch of the Colonials’ 96-73 road loss to the Golden Grizzlies on Jan. 4.
Goode and Nikolaos Chitikoudis grabbed seven rebounds each.
Jaidon Lipscomb paced Cleveland State (10-16, 6-9) with 21 points. Chevalier Emery added 17 off the bench for the Vikings, who lost for the second time in a row following a five-game winning streak.
Cleveland State, which leads the Horizon in 3-point field-goal percentage (37.8%), struggled from behind the arc, going 8 for 26 (30.8%).
The Vikings shot 42.0% overall.
“Certainly, as you prepare for this game and you watch the ability they have to make 3s, the number of guys they have that makes 3s, and how well they’ve shot it over the last six games, it causes you a lot of concern,” Toole said. “One step out of position, one step too early or late, and all of a sudden they’ve got guys that can really hurt you. They’re going to continue to be aggressive from 3. Our defense did a really good job for the majority of the game.”
As Robert Morris’ season picks up steam, it appears that Toole has assembled another team perhaps capable of challenging for a conference title. The Colonials last season won their first tournament championship since joining the Horizon in 2020 and are seeking their second consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament.
The latest outcome, an impressive performance after a slow start in the first half, keeps the thought alive.
“We had good ball movement in that second half when we solidified the win.” Toole said. “We had great looks off ball movement with a paint touch, which is something we encourage. It’s collapsing that defense, getting them in rotation and guys stepped up and knocked down shots to extend the lead and keep them at bay.”