Robert Morris pummels Milwaukee for 3rd straight win

In the immediate aftermath of a big victory at UPMC Events Center, with Robert Morris convincingly beating Milwaukee, 80-60, on Saturday night, coach Andy Toole was quick not to attach too much meaning to the win.

The Colonials (14-15, 9-9 Horizon League) defended their home court and took down the Panthers (18-9, 16-6), who entered Saturday evening tied for second place in the conference.

Robert Morris has won three straight and took an important step Saturday toward guaranteeing a Horizon League tournament game will be played in Moon, which would be a first for the Colonials since leaving the Northeast Conference in June of 2020.

Two games remain for the Colonials, starting next Tuesday against the league-leading Youngstown State Penguins.

“We’ve got to just worry about getting ready for Tuesday — keep our focus as small as humanly possible,” Toole said. “…Youngstown State’s been playing phenomenal. They’ve been on another level, and we’ve got to be able to get our guys prepared in a quick amount of time.”

Many scenarios remain with respect to the end-of-season standings and league tournament seedings, but before the Colonials and Panthers took the court Saturday, one game separated fifth-place Oakland and ninth-place Detroit Mercy.

With that razor-thin degree of separation serving as a backdrop to Saturday evening’s contest, the Colonials turned in a dominating performance, shooting 44% (12 of 27) from long range against a Panthers team that was second-best in the Horizon League with a 30% 3-point defense.

Jackson Last and Josh Corbin tied for the team lead with 16 points apiece, followed by Kahliel Spear and Michael Green III (14 points each) and Enoch Cheeks, who contributed 11.

“I felt like it just flowed for us,” Green said of the Colonials’ 3-point shooting. “We all just got open looks, and we knocked them down. We were able to make shots today.”

The Colonials took an early lead but trailed by five following a 13-2 run by Milwaukee about midway through the first half.

However, from there, Robert Morris produced a 16-0 run of its own and took a 42-31 lead into halftime.

The Panthers briefly threatened about 10 minutes into the second half, coming within eight points of the Colonials, but soon thereafter, Robert Morris took over.

With 5:49 to go the Colonials led by 14 and with just less than four minutes remaining, they had stretched their lead to 70-50.

On top of an efficient, evenly spread offensive performance, Robert Morris also dominated on the glass, outrebounding Milwaukee, 45-23.

In the end, there wasn’t too much to nitpick, with the Colonials providing Spear and Green with a memorable experience on senior night. Both were honored before opening tipoff.

Spear, speaking with reporters after the game, summarized things well:

“I’m just looking through the box score, and in every statistical category, we did what we needed to do to beat a good team,” he said.