MOON TOWNSHIP– On Thursday, Robert Morris’ men’s basketball attempted to play the role of spoiler as they took on Oakland, who came into the game at half-game ahead of Green Bay for first place in the Horizon League standings.
RMU 10-18 (6-11) welcomed Oakland 19-10 (14-4) to the UPMC Event Center. But they would ultimately fall 63-43.
Early in the first half, Oakland’s matchup zone was giving the Colonials some trouble as they could only score nine points ten and a half minutes into the first. RMU was shooting and had five turnovers at the under-twelve media timeout. That continued as RMU shot 5-20 from the floor at the under-eight timeout.
After the game, Head Coach Andy Toole discussed the challenges facing the Oakland zone defense.
“Their zone is is is is challenged,” Toole said. “It’s it’s it’s the amoeba defense from UNLV in the late eighties and early nineties. And, um, they’re so good with their slides. They have such great length. They have such great activity in it that it makes it hard for you to move the ball.“
The Colonials defense kept them in the game for the time being. The Golden Grizzlies were shooting poorly from the floor as the Colonials played very good perimeter defense, only letting up one three-pointer to fall.
“I was proud of those guys and their effort,” Toole said. “They fought defensively. I think some of the fights on the defensive side fatigue them on the offensive side, in all honesty.”
As the second half started, RMU had a real shot to cut into the Oakland lead; however, RMU forward Markeese Hastings would get hurt, which was a big blow to the Colonials as they would have to turn to sparingly used center Trey James would have to come in and give the Colonials some minutes as the Golden Grizzlies would extend their lead of ten to as much as 22.
RMU could never figure out the Oakland defense, as they shot 30% from the floor and turned the ball over 14 times.
One bright spot for the Colonials was Alvaro Folgueiras, as he had 15 points and added 11 rebounds.
The standout performer for Oakland was Trey Townsend. He led all scorers with 22 points and 17 rebounds and was a handful for RMU inside.
He gained a significant advantage when Colonials leading scorer Markeese Hastings went down due to an injury.
The Colonials will look to get back on track on Sunday, Feb. 25th, as they will welcome Cleveland State to the UPMC Event Center at 2:00.
