INDIANAPOLIS — The Robert Morris men’s basketball team have advanced to the Horizon League championship game for the first time in program history.

The Colonials were down as much as 13 points in the second half.

RMU’s star players were in foul trouble early with Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year, Amarion Dickerson, had two personal fouls in the opening three minutes and conference Player of the Year Alvaro Folgueiras also had two fouls in the first half.

With minimal minutes from arguably their best two players, head coach Andy Toole would turn to his big-man Ishmael Plet. Plet would make the most of the opportunity scoring 10 points and five rebounds.

“ He has the size and strength to match up with [Allen] Mukeba or Baru [Naivalurua],” Toole said. “I think those things kind of help him in these kind of games. I thought he was excellent.”

Oakland went on an quick 8-0 run at the end of the first half, leading at the break by 4. Oakland came out of the half on fire as well, expanding their lead to 13 points with 15 minutes to play.

“ I give our guys a lot of credit for continuing to battle back,” Toole said. “In the first two games, against them, we were also down at the half. I thought from about the 15 minute mark in the second half, onward, I thought our defense really started to stand up and that was what allowed us to get ourselves back into the game.”

Senior Kam Woods started the game a cold 1-for-7 from the field in the first half, but he continued to shoot the ball after continued getting the green light from his coaching staff. He finished the game 7-for-12 with a game-high 23 points.

“ I missed a couple shots that were great looks,” Woods said. “My teammates and coach kept telling me “just keep shooting the ball.” Having that in my ear give me more confidence to just keep balling out no matter how I’m playing.”

With 1:19 to play, the NC State transfer hit his first three-pointer of the game to cut the deficit to one and converted on an and-one opportunity with 16 seconds left.

Oakland head coach Greg Kampe decided to call timeout with four seconds remaining in regulation. It would end up costing the longest tenured coach in Division I as they turned over the inbound pass.

The Colonials would take the lead on a DJ Smith three-pointer with time winding down in the shot clock and would never look back, leading throughout the extra frame.

Kam Woods would extend the lead to 4 through a jumper, but it didn’t impact the game much as the Golden Grizzlies finished the game 0-for-5 from the field.

With the Colonials win, they will live to fight another day and will play in the championship game Tuesday night against Youngstown State.