MOON TOWNSHIP — They say “to be the best, you gotta beat the best,” and that was the task that laid in front of current Horizon League leaders, Wright State, who entered the home of the reigning champs Robert Morris.
While five places separated the teams in the table, it would be the reigning champs who showed their prospective successors that taking the belt wouldn’t be that easy, as the Colonials would show their grit and spirit, overcoming the Raiders 72-66.
The nationally televised meeting between the pair was their first since the Horizon League quarterfinals last season, the first stop on RMU’s route to winning the whole thing.
Today, the sides had flipped, and it was RMU’s turn to play underdog.
The naked eye wouldn’t be able to tell that this was a meeting between a sixth and first placed team, much like the landscape of the rest of the Horizon League.
Robert Morris would start sturdy defensively, holding the Raiders to 30% from the field in the first half. On the opposite side, the Colonials showed strength with Desean Goode and Nikolaos Chitikoudis, who RMU Head Coach Andy Toole described after the game as having “one of his best games.”
The big men would caused problems in the paint for the Raiders for most of the night, and combined with a spark from off the bench by Darius Livingston, the Colonials shot out to a 15 point lead down the stretch of the first half.
RMU would enter the break with a 40-27 lead. The 13 point deficit was the largest Wright State had faced before in conference. While many would expect a team to blink in the eyes of a double digit deficit on the road, the Raiders would show why they are the projected HL auto bid into March Madness.
The second half started with a quick 6-0 run by Wright State, given to them mostly by sloppy turnovers from RMU.
While RMU would maintain the lead through the first ten minutes of the second frame, the team would see their lead shrink to one with 9 minutes remaining in the game.
With Wright State, who averages 79.9 points this season, would find their own big men, Michael Imariagbe and Kellen Pickett, to take the lead for the first time since the first half, 61-57.
With 6:18 remaining in the game, the Colonials would rally around one another to make sure they find a way to get back in this game.
“Coach got on us.” Prather said. “I think us coming together and really just leaning on each other, playing as a team, help us tremendously to help us get that lead towards the end of the game.”
Coach Toole reiterated his player sentiment, saying “You gotta be able to play through all 40 minutes. And we gathered the five who were in and said “This is a college basketball game. it’s a two possession game with 6:10 to go in it, like let’s go make a play, go fight, go make a shot, what are we worried about?” And I thought we did a great job after that.”
The big men would again return to steal the spotlight from the current conference leaders, as after a nice layup from Chitikoudis, the Greek international would take the ball right back and let the now season vet, Ryan Prather, do the rest.
Prather, who had had a quiet first half, showed up when the Colonials needed him most, scoring 12 points in the second half including the game tying layup. The junior ended the night shooting 50% from three and once again leading the team in points with 17 total.
“We just gotta keep being consistent.” Prather said after the game. “We can’t take any days off, any games off. We gotta keep being consistent.”
After Prather’s shot, the packed Events Center crowd was on their feet like they were entering halftime. The crowd, including the Colonial Crazy student section, propelled the team, including Desean Goode, in their biggest moments.
“It’s obviously nice to have the students come support us because they don’t have too,” Goode said. “Just having a crowd like that, whether they were a student, or if they were a parent, or a kid, just coming out to support us, we appreciate everyone.
Goode himself would make the crowd pop. After two free throws by Chitikoudis gave the Colonials their lead back, Goode would hit a corner lead to make it 68-63, and the IU Indy transfer and his team would never look back.
The game would end 72-66 in RMU’s favor, a much needed win to put the Colonials at 7-7 in conference but remain at sixth place in the standings.
What’s clear is that not only are Wright State maybe not ready for the big show just yet, but like many have said about the conference throughout the season, the Horizon League is so close, and too close to call.
Up next for RMU are two, tough road matches in Ohio against Youngstown and the hottest team in the conference, Cleveland State.
The Vikings have won 5 straight games to put themselves one game behind the Colonials in the standings. But while pressure is mounting as the road ahead narrows, Coach Toole is remaining short sighted.
“[The goal is] to get better tomorrow. Take care of Thursday.” Toole said. “We gotta come in, take care of our bodies. Recover. Start to prepare. Start to understand gameplan. Learn what we did well in the first game. Learn what we need to do better this game.”
The Colonials will meet Wright State again before playoffs begin, but before that RMU has to get through Youngstown this weekend. Tip-off against the Penguins is scheduled for 4:30 on Saturday, February 7 in Ohio.
