There’s been no stopping the Robert Morris machine of late.
Like last season, the Colonials closed out the regular season Saturday on a seven-game winning streak by thumping Cleveland State, 83-64, at UPMC Events Center just days ahead of their Horizon League Tournament first-round game.
Robert Morris (21-10, 13-7), the No. 2 seed, will host the No. 9 seed — either Youngstown State or Milwaukee — at 7 p.m. Wednesday to open defense of its first Horizon Tournament championship last season.
Nikolaos Chitikoudis notched is 10th double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds and and DeSean Goode added 16 points to lead Robert Morris, which pulled away from a halftime tie by outscoring Cleveland State, 41-25, in the second half.
The Colonials completed the season sweep of the Vikings by using a 20-2 second-half run to turn a one-point deficit into a 73-56 lead with 6 minutes, 28 seconds left.
Darius Livingston, with 12 points, and Ryan Prather Jr., with 11, also scored in double figures for Robert Morris.
Cleveland State (10-21, 6-14) was led by Chevalier Emery’s 11 points. The Vikings, who were playing without injured leading scorer Dayan Nessah (15.5 ppg), will open the Horizon Tournament at home in a play-in game as the No. 10 seed against No. 11 IU Indianapolis.
Robert Morris and Cleveland State played to a 39-39 stalemate in the first half. The Colonials shot a sizzling 52% (15 for 29), but the Vikings converted 7 of 14 3-pointers to keep pace.
Cleveland State led by as many as 11 points and was ahead 39-34 with 1:34 to play until halftime before Robert Morris closed out the half with five unanswered points, including Ta’Zir Smith’s jumper to knot it at the buzzer.