MOON TOWNSHIP – Tonight the Colonials hosted a postseason game for the first time since the 2019-2020 season when Robert Morris hosted the Northeast Conference Championship Game.

Last time these two teams met was less than a weeks ago when the Colonials fell in the final game of the regular season. Tonight, RMU had a chip on their shoulder and wanted to get them back. This game meat a little more for the Colonials as they win 67-64 over IUPUI.

Robert Morris had the lead for majority of the game and was only tied for 10 seconds until Michael Green III hit a huge three with two seconds left to put the Colonials up by three. Head coach Andy Toole talked about Green’s performance and the big shot.

“[Michael] had three huge threes in that second half that gave us a little bit of a cushion with about 3, 3.5 to go and obviously the last one was the biggest. You know that’s where it’s so valuable to have a guy like Michael and have him be able to do what he does with his experience, with his skill set, with his ability to make plays. And obviously he made a season saving play tonight.”

The Colonials were never able to put IUPUI away even with a lead as big as 14 in the game. A lot of the second half was choppy and both teams spent time at the line. Even though IUPUI outscored the colonials 44-33 in the second half RMU held strong and when adversity hit RMU answered with a big shot.

Head coach Andy Toole spoke on why his team was never able to put IUPUI away.

“Just dribble penetration really, they made two late threes which were kind of like lazy type closeouts. But until that point everything was in the paint or it was at the free throw line. And they just put pressure on you by getting constantly in the paint. And we couldn’t control closeouts. So it’s similar to what they did to us in Indianapolis where we couldn’t control the closeout and they just attacked us and we weren’t able to keep people in front of us it led to us being in rotation a lot in that second half, in the first half we didn’t give up as much penetration.”

RMU had 20 points in the paint in the first half, in the second half they were only able to get four for a total of 24 in the game. This was a big key for IUPUI’s comeback in the second half and also a big key for the lack of Colonial scoring overall in the second half. Andy Toole talked about what he saw on why his team wasn’t getting points in the paint.

“I think we got into the paint a little bit in the second half I think we weren’t always strong enough when we got it in there. Jackson had a drive early where I think that has to be a three point play for us instead of going to the free throw line and getting one, E had a great drive and kind of got bumped and the ball got stripped. So, when you get in there you got to be strong, you know this is big boy time and you got to be able and get it in there.”

Kahliel Spear led the Colonials with 17 points and 11 rebounds he was able to lead the Colonials with a big performance. He was able to talk about his play tonight in a big way.

“I felt good man, got a little banged up throughout the game but just going into this game was exciting in my three years here this is our first home playoff game student section came out and showed a lot of love, and just the Colonial fan base showed a lot of love so it gave us a lot of a boost and made it more fun to play today.”

Michael Green III was right behind Spear in scoring but ultimately hit the biggest shot of the night when we hit a game winning three to put RMU up by two late to give them the win. With the winning basket he also hit a couple of big threes in the second half to help propel the Colonials late. He put up 16 points and two assists. Michael was able to speak on his game winning shot.

“We drew up a play in the timeout for Kahliel top come up and set up the screen by the time I got to half court there was about seven seconds I feel like I just made the right read I was open off the screen and just made the big shot.”

Robert Morris will head to Cleveland State on Thursday for the Quarterfinals of the Horizon League playoff with tip-off set for 8p.m.