Robert Morris men fall short in another closely contested game

The closely contested losses continue to pile up for the Robert Morris men’s basketball team in its second season in the Horizon League, and it’s starting to wear out the Colonials.

This time, they fell just short against Oakland, 71-68, on Friday night at UPMC Events Center, dropping to 1-9 in games decided by single digits and 1-4 in outcomes of four points or fewer.

Jamal Cain scored 29 points to lead Oakland (17-8, 10-4), which stopped a three-game losing streak. The Golden Grizzlies trail first-place Cleveland State by 1 1/2 games.

Cain shot 10 for 19, including 3 for 5 from 3-point range, and added four steals.

Despite it, Robert Morris coach Andy Toole was satisfied that his players gave it all they could.

“The effort our guys are giving and the way they are continuing to battle, I respect that greatly,” Toole said. “It’s a good reflection of who they are and what they are about.”

The night was a good bounceback for Robert Morris (6-19, 4-12) from a less-than-desirable effort two nights earlier in a 79-62 home loss to Detroit Mercy.

“Really, really liked our fight in the second half on the defensive side,” Toole said. “Those guys were giving everything they could give. We’ve just go to be a little bit smarter in situations, and we’ve got to be a little bit smarter in some of the other game stuff.”

Following Thursday’s loss, Toole was a bit more animated over the Colonials’ lack of fight, lamenting, “We just get sad and want everyone to feel bad for us. Our opponents don’t care.”

Perhaps it was a message his players took to heart because, while there were glitches throughout, Robert Morris was in a position to possibly send the game into overtime twice in the closing seconds.

The Colonials crept within a 69-68 on two free throws by Michael Green III with 5.2 seconds remaining after Oakland fouled on the inbounds pass.

The Colonials immediately fouled Cain on the next possession, and the 6-foot-7 graduate transfer from Marquette sank both shots from the line to boost the Oakland lead back to a three-point cushion.

After a timeout, Brandon Stone heaved an inbounds pass to the Colonials’ end, but Oakland batted the ball away and the Golden Grizzlies survived.

“We just came up a few possessions short again,” Toole said.

Tre Townsend added 18 points and Micah Parrish 15 for Oakland, which committed just five turnovers to Robert Morris’ 16. Jalen Moore logged 10 of Oakland’s 18 assists.

“There were times when we executed really well, but there was a stretch there where we had some costly turnovers,” Toole said. “I don’t know what guys were thinking. We made a couple of bad reads late in the game that really hurt our ability to either tie or take the lead with under 3 minutes to go.”

Stone, the La Salle transfer who began his high school career at Southmoreland before transferring to Christ School (N.C.), came off the bench to tie a career-high with 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting for Robert Morris.

He converted all three of his 3-point attempts and also grabbed eight rebounds.

Kahliel Spear added 14 points to go with 11 rebounds for his seventh double-double of the season and third in the past four games. Matt Mayers scored 11 for the Colonials.

Robert Morris trailed 39-35 at halftime and tied the score at 58-58 with 8 minutes, 26 seconds left on a layup by Jaron Williams but never led in the second half.

Oakland won despite shooting a lesser percentage (48.3) than Robert Morris (49.0), which lost for the eighth time when finishing with a better shooting performance than its opponent.

“It’s another game where you shoot better than your opponent and you don’t win it,” Toole said.

Yet another previous Robert Morris loss occurred when the teams’ percentages were nearly identical.

“We might be setting an NCAA record for the number of games where our field-goal percentage is higher than our opponents’ and somehow we don’t win the game,” Toole said.

Robert Morris plays its third game in five days at noon Sunday at Youngstown State. The Colonials outshot the Penguins in the first meeting Jan. 5 but dropped a 64-60 decision.