When Robert Morris and Oakland met twice in men’s basketball during the regular season, the games developed into fierce battles.
Robert Morris won both times by a combined 10 points.
The third affair Monday night in the Horizon League Tournament semifinals at Corteva Coliseum in Indianapolis was an absolute war.
Kam Woods scored 23 points, and top-seeded Robert Morris for a third time won a close outcome against No. 6 Oakland, 79-76 in overtime, sending the Colonials to the conference championship game for the first time.
Robert Morris (25-8), which joined the Horizon in 2020, will play No. 4 Youngstown State at 7 p.m. Tuesday with an NCAA Tournament bid at stake.
The Penguins outlasted No. 2 Cleveland State, 56-54, in a later semifinal Monday.
With less than 24 hours until his team plays again, Robert Morris coach Andy Toole said it’s a time to just stay the course.
“Just recover, recover, recover,” he said. “Try to hydrate. Do everything in your power to get your body to the best level you can. We’re just thankful we’ve got (another) opportunity, and I know these guys will be excited and ready to go.”
Woods’ three-point play for Robert Morris with 16 seconds left in regulation tied the score at 74-74.
D.J. Smith’s 3-point shot 30 seconds into overtime put Robert Morris in the lead for good as the Colonials held Oakland without a field goal in the extra session, limiting the Golden Grizzlies to just two free throws.
“From the 15-minute mark of the second half, our defense really started to stand up, and that was what allowed us to get ourselves back in the game,” Toole said.
Robert Morris trailed 38-34 at halftime and fell behind by as many as 13 points in the second half before coming back to take the lead with 5:04 remaining in regulation on Josh Omojafo’s 3-point shot.
But Oakland (16-18) regained control on back-to-back 3-point shots by D.Q. Cole and Jayson Woodrich to go up 72-68 with 1:29 left.
Woods responded with his only 3-pointer of the game to pull Robert Morris within 72-71.
Two free throws by Cole with 32 seconds left gave Oakland a three-point cushion, setting up Woods’ off-balance shot under the basket while drawing contact and sending him to the free-throw line, where he tied the score to send the game into overtime.
“I missed a couple of shots that I had great looks,” said Woods, who finished 8 for 19 but just 1 of 4 from 3-point range. “Even though I was down, my teammates kept telling me to keep shooting the ball. And coach told me to keep shooting. Just having that in my ear gave me more confidence.”
Alvaro Folgueiras, the Horizon League Player of the Year, added 12 points for Robert Morris before fouling out in the final minute of regulation with Oakland clinging to a one-point lead.
Smith (11), and Omojafo and Ismael Plet (10 each) — the latter subbing periodically for the foul-plagued tandem of Folgueiras and Amarion Dickerson — also scored in double figures for RMU, which shot 43.8% and made 10 of 25 3-pointers (40.0%).
The Colonials previously defeated Oakland, 79-71 and 73-71, the latter time at UPMC Events Center being decided when Woods hit 2 of 3 free throws after a controversial foul call on a 3-point attempt in the final second.
After the game, Oakland coach Greg Kampe protested to officials and later was suspended for one game, and referee Josh White was dismissed by the league.
Robert Morris, which won for the ninth consecutive time and 15th time in the past 16 games, is bidding for its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 10 years and the second in Toole’s 15 seasons as coach.
In 2015, the Colonials won the Northeast Conference Tournament and defeated North Florida in an NCAA First Four play-in game before losing to Duke in the first round.
The 2020 team won the NEC Tournament in the program’s final season in the league but couldn’t play in the NCAA Tournament, which was canceled amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Now the Colonials are one win away from making a return to college basketball’s biggest stage, where Oakland last season at PPG Paints Arena upset Kentucky in the first round after winning the Horizon Tournament championship.
“Coach Kampe and his team have been here. They know what it takes,” Toole said. “They came out and they really set the tone, and they were the aggressors. But I give our guys a lot of credit for continuing to fight through and battle back. We just had to make some plays and defend a little better.”
Oakland, which shot 46.3% and was 8 for 23 (34.8%) from behind the arc, was led by Allen Mukeba, who scored 18 points before fouling out. Tuburu Naivalurua added 13, Malcolm Christie scored 12 and Cole finished with 11.
Oakland’s biggest lead of 53-40 came on a jumper by Jaylen Jones with 15:14 left in regulation.
From there, Robert Morris chipped away.
“This is their 25th win. They’re not going to run away and hide,” said Kampe, who completed his 41st season, all at Oakland. “We got that lead, but you knew there was a run left in them. I’m not sure that in a game like this, you can ever think that a team is going to die.
“It was a great college basketball game.”
The Colonials got within 61-57 on a dunk by Plet before Christie’s 3-pointer increased Oakland’s lead to 64-57 with 7:42 to go. But the Golden Grizzlies went cold while Robert Morris used an 11-0 run to take a 68-64 lead.
The Colonials held Oakland scoreless for 4½ minutes and without a field goal for more than 5½ — Naivalurua made two free throws — until Cole’s 3-pointer with 1:58 left put the Golden Grizzlies ahead 69-68, and Woodrich followed with another to make it a four-point margin.
It didn’t matter. Robert Morris survived.
“Multiple guys in double digits is a testament to our connectivity,” Omojafo said. “Everybody contributed. It’s the reason why we won.”
Categories: Robert Morris | Sports
