After cruising to a five game winning streak in the month of December, the Robert Morris men’s basketball team was on a non-conference tear heading into the holiday hiatus, but back-to-back losses against Arkansas and Bryant have halted RMU’s winning ways.
Sharpshooters Dyami Starks and Frankie Dobbs tallied 29 and 26 points respectively while forward Alex Francis added 18 tallies en route to the Bulldogs’ eighth overall win and first victory against RMU in program history Thursday night at the Charles L. Sewall Center.
“Those guys [Starks, Dobbs, and Francis] killed us. Our scouting report said to contain Francis and Starks and if you throw in Dobbs, 70% of their offense comes from those three guys,” said RMU head coach Andy Toole. “They single-handedly beat us.”
Although Robert Morris jumped out to an early advantage courtesy of a jump shot by Lucky Jones, BU went on a 7-0 run midway through the half. Despite the fact that the Colonials regained the lead after Jones knocked down a three pointer, they headed into intermission trailing 33-32.
“We were fortunate to be down one point at the half. Their best players made great plays and great shots and some of our reliable guys just made poor decisions,” Toole said.
Both squads matched each other shot for shot in the final frame, and the Colonials used a 13-5 run at the 8:30 mark to tie the contest at 51, but Bryant converted 18-19 free throw attempts during the games’ final four minutes, enabling them close out the contest.
“They wanted respect and showed it by playing harder, and getting the win,” said Jones, who scored 13 points. “The layoff between games didn’t factor in at all, we just didn’t come out as good as we needed to be.”
Karvel Anderson, who also netted 13 tallies, said that although the Colonials were able to gain momentum in the second half, they were not able to sustain effort, which inevitably put the game out of reach.
“There were stretches when we made a run and came together, which definitely helped, but it just got away from us,” he said.
Toole believes that his squad was unable to begin NEC play with a victory because of the numerous blunders made on the court, which allowed the Bulldogs, who are ranked in the College Insider Mid-Major Top 25 poll for the first time, to shoot 53% from beyond the arc.
“I could turn on any practice this year and show you the exact same mistakes we made tonight,” he added. “Practice is where you’re supposed to correct your mistakes so that when you get into the game, you don’t make them. We constantly made the same mistakes over and over again and that’s what you saw.”
The Colonials return to the court to take on conference foe Central Connecticut State on Saturday before beginning a two game road swing versus Fairleigh Dickinson and Monmouth.
