It took some time, but Robert Morris finally took control.
The defending Horizon League Tournament champion used a second-half scoring burst, led by Ryan Prather Jr., to power its way past neighboring Youngstown State, 68-53, in the opening round of the Horizon Tournament on Wednesday night at UPMC Events Center.
Prather, the Colonials’ only returning player from last season, scored 22 of his 24 points in the second half after Robert Morris clung to a 28-23 halftime lead.
“In the second half, my coaches and teammates stuck with me,” Prather said. “Even though I only had two points at halftime, they kept me confident and aggressive. It helped me to continue to get my shot up.”
Prather shot 9 for 17, including 5 for 10 from 3-point range, as the Colonials overwhelmed the Penguins after halftime with a 40-30 scoring edge.
“The story of the game was our defense throughout,” Robert Morris coach Andy Toole said. “And our defense allowed us to maintain a lead when we went into halftime. In the second half, obviously, Ryan caught fire and our offense started to improve and we got some high-quality shots, and then the defense led to some turnovers that allowed us to extend the game and eventually win it.
“Proud of our second-half performance tonight.”
DeSean Goode, named the Horizon League Player of the Year on Monday, notched his 11th double-double of the season with 12 points and 11 rebounds, and freshman Darius Livingston also scored 12 points for Robert Morris (22-10).
The victory — their eighth straight and third in as many games this season against Youngstown State — sent the second-seeded Colonials into the semifinals Monday night against No. 3 Detroit Mercy at Corteva Coliseum in Indianapolis.
No. 1 Wright State will play either No. 5 Green Bay or No. 7 Northern Kentucky in the other semifinal. The championship game is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Goode will be returning to Indianapolis for the semifinals after playing his first college season at IU Indianapolis.
When it was suggested that perhaps Prather, a senior, might deserve a share of that player of the year honor, Goode glanced at his teammate and smiled.
“Yeah,” he said. “As long as we get the win.”
No. 9 Youngstown State (15-17) was led by Vlad Salaridze’s 18 points. Cris Carroll added 17 for the Penguins, who lost to Robert Morris in last season’s Horizon Tournament championship game.
“This game, right here, gave us a good amount of confidence that we believe that we can compete for a (another) championship,” Prather said.
Robert Morris led 41-37 near the midpoint of the second half, then began to pull away, scoring 11 unanswered points to grab a 52-37 advantage.
The lead reached 20 on a Prather 3-pointer with 4:32 remaining.
“Ryan is a terrific shooter,” Toole said, “but every once in a while, I’ll kind of try to give him a little of what I’ve seen. In the last couple games, I’ve done that, not that I want to take credit for his second-half shooting the last couple games. He wants to make every shot. He did a great job not only making 3s, but some of those drives put pressure on their interior defense as well.”
The largest home crowd of the season for Robert Morris was hopping when the first half began, but neither offense could get anything going.
Youngstown State led 6-2 with 5:15 gone by, with six of the total points coming from the free-throw line.
With 7:47 to go, Robert Morris held a 10-8 lead.
During the first 20 minutes, Robert Morris shot 35.7% (9 for 26) after a slow start and held Youngstown State to 24.3% (9 for 37).
“I know there’s going to be jitters,” Toole said. “I’ve been doing this long enough now that it doesn’t matter if there’s 100 people or 500 people in there. This is a conference tournament game. There’s no safety net. You lose today, you’re handing in your jersey tomorrow. It’s not like we’ve got another one next week. I thought our guys were playing incredibly hard in the first half, but obviously we just couldn’t get into the flow.”
Finally, the scoring pace picked up ever so slightly, and the Colonials clung to their five-point halftime lead.