MOON TOWNSHIP– Robert Morris and Jacksonville faced off in the opening game of the inaugural Urban-Bennett Memorial Classic. The Colonials dropped their third in a row, losing to the Dolphins 74-65.

The contest’s climax happened at about six minutes to play after a timeout. Tempers started to flare as both teams got together at midcourt and started pushing and shoving.

Both coaches received technical fouls, and everyone on both teams on the bench was ejected for leaving their respective branches. For the remainder of the game, both teams had no substitutes.

“You get so caught up in the emotions of the game,” Jacksonville head coach Jordan Mincey said. “It was a great basketball game. I hate how that probably will be the highlight of the game. They have a great coaching staff and they run really good plays. It was a blessing to be here and a great time to play here.”

The Colonials had a 6-0 run immediately before the incident.

“It was an emotional game,” Colonials head coach Andy Toole said. “Our guys were great, competitive, chippy. Unfortunately, it was the wrong time. An immediate timeout, and all of a sudden, we crossed paths and made a couple of bumps, and then it just kind of turned into nonsense. It’s not how we want to behave.”

The Colonials had 20 turnovers Friday afternoon after turning it over a season-high 21 times in the last game against Wisconsin.

“It was a lot of bad decisions,” Toole said. “We were being rushed and did not have enough poise. And we talked about them trying to turn us over and trying to really speed us up. Some of [the turnovers] were really silly. We would just be amazed at some of the turnovers that we had. A lot of them are by guys who are expected to be able to handle the ball under pressure and get it to the right place or at least get it to a safe place. It doesn’t always have to be to the exact perfect place, but we gotta be able to value them.”

Markeese Hastings led the team with 19 points and 11 rebounds.

The Colonials dropped their first game at home and have lost all of their games against Division I opponents, with Point Park being their only win.

Robert Morris will continue to host the Urban-Bennett Memorial Classic with their next opponent being last year’s Cinderella darling, FDU on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Jacksonville will play the Knights tomorrow at the UPMC Events Center tomorrow at 4 p.m.