Cold stretch dooms RMU
Robert Morris stormed out of the gate against Cleveland State but once RMU's offense went cold, the Colonials' hopes froze as well.
Bryn Forbes led six Cleveland State players in double figures with 18 points as the Vikings defeated Robert Morris 87-74 on Saturday. The Vikings (3-2), leading 33-29 at the half, built their lead to 18 points by outscoring the Colonials (3-3) 20-6 over the first 6 minutes of the second half. That would be enough cushion to absorb a rally that would get the Colonials within five points with 8 minutes left, but no closer.
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"The games where score a lot of points and make a lot of shots, we've played well. The games where it's harder to score and more difficult is when we've folded up a little bit," head coach Andrew Toole said on his post-game radio show. "That's disappointing to me as a coach, and you have to correct it in practice. We have to have some better practices."
Joining Forbes in double figures were Charlie Lee with 17 points, Anton Grady and Trey Lewis with 13 apiece, Jon Harris with 11 and Sebastian Douglas with 10. The Vikings finished 23 of 45 from the field for 51.1 percent, including 7 of 17 from the 3-point arc, 41.2 percent. The hot-shooting from Cleveland State stood in stark contrast to Robert Morris' performance. The Colonials finished just 23-of-38 from the field, including a paltry 5-of-18 from the 3-point line.
Robert Morris had a ten-point lead in the first seven minutes of the first half, but much like the Eastern Michigan loss ten days ago, the Colonials couldn't hang on to the early momentum.
"When things get hard, we don't really want to accept that responsibility," Toole said. "We need to work on being more disciplined throughout the entire game."
Freshman forward Jeremiah Worthem scored a career-high 16 points in the loss for Robert Morris while playing a season-high 24 minutes.
"We'd play him more minutes if he can handle it, because he makes good things happen on the floor," Toole said. "I liked a lot of the stuff he did tonight and there's a lot of stuff that we can build on."
Karvel Anderson provided 14 and Lucky Jones had 13 for Robert Morris, which lost Mike McFadden to a lower body injury in the first half. McFadden did not play in the second half after scoring seven points and pulling down four rebounds in 10 first half minutes.
Robert Morris' 4-game road trip continues Tuesday at Buffalo.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Attendance: 2,755
Robert Morris (3-3)
Players
Min
FG
3P
FT
Rebounds
PF
A
TO
B
S
Pts
K. Anderson
31
6-15
0-6
2-4
0
1
1
1
1
0
0
0
14
A. Myers-Pate
25
0-4
0-0
3-4
2
2
4
5
3
1
0
1
3
J. Worthem
24
4-5
1-1
7-12
2
3
5
3
0
1
0
0
16
L. Jones
23
2-7
2-5
7-8
0
3
3
5
2
2
0
1
13
D. Newton
23
1-4
0-1
2-2
1
2
3
1
6
1
0
0
4
A. Tate
23
3-5
0-0
0-0
3
2
5
1
0
1
0
1
6
D. Appolon
19
0-2
0-1
0-0
2
0
2
4
1
2
0
1
0
S. Hawkins
11
2-3
0-0
1-1
1
2
3
4
0
1
0
1
5
C. Oliver
11
2-4
2-4
0-0
0
1
1
3
0
1
0
0
6
M. McFadden
10
3-9
0-0
1-2
3
1
4
1
0
0
1
0
7
Team Rebounds
2
Totals
Shooting Pct.
200
23-58
39.7
5-18
27.8
23-33
69.7
15
18
35
28
13
10
1
5
74
Cleveland St. (3-2)
Players
Min
FG
3P
FT
Rebounds
PF
A
TO
B
S
Pts
B. Forbes
40
4-12
2-5
8-9
0
1
1
2
1
2
0
0
18
J. Harris
32
3-4
2-3
3-5
0
7
7
2
2
1
0
1
11
A. Grady
29
4-6
0-0
5-10
3
3
6
5
4
2
2
2
13
T. Lewis
28
2-7
0-4
9-10
1
1
2
2
4
3
0
0
13
C. Lee
27
4-10
2-4
7-7
0
0
0
2
4
2
0
2
17
S. Douglas
24
4-4
0-0
2-3
2
3
5
3
0
3
0
0
10
M. Mason
10
2-2
1-1
0-0
1
1
2
4
0
0
1
0
5
D. Flannigan
4
0-0
0-0
0-0
2
0
2
2
0
1
0
0
0
I. Dauda
3
0-0
0-0
0-0
0
2
2
1
0
0
0
0
0
D. Long
3
0-0
0-0
0-0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
R. Veira
0
0-0
0-0
0-0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Team Rebounds
5
Totals
Shooting Pct.
200
23-45
51.1
7-17
41.2
34-44
77.3
9
23
37
24
15
14
3
5
87
Officials:
Steve Skiles, Larry Martin, Gerald Morrow