Unlikely hero leads RMU rally to beat Bryant, 72-59
Early in Robert Morris’ 72-59 win against Bryant, Colonials coach Andy Toole pulled Chris Coalmon aside after some lackluster minutes by the sophomore forward.
“When he came out, I said to him ‘When are you going to be the player that you can be? You’re 6-6, you’re athletic, you can shoot it, you can pass it, you can handle it,’” Toole said. “’We really need you to start playing at a higher level than you’re playing.’”
The answer to when that would jump-start Coalmon, as it turns out? Pretty much immediately.
Coalmon, who entered the game averaging 2.8 points and 1.9 rebounds in 12.9 minutes per game — his season-high an 8-point performance vs. LIU Brooklyn — scored 10 points in about three
minutes to help solidify Robert Morris’ (13-11, 8-3 Northeastern Conference) comeback victory vs. Bryant (8-14, 5-6 NEC) and break its two-game slide.
“After I saw the first one go in, I thought, maybe I should keep shooting,” Coalmon said. “And then everything would fall, basically… It feels good to know that your teammates keep passing you the ball when you’re on fire. It feels good that your teammates feel good for you when you’re hitting shots like that.”
He finished with 12 points, a new season high, to go with six rebounds, though it was junior forward Yannis Mendy who led the team in scoring with 14. Sophomore forward Charles Bain had 10 points and 6 rebounds, and Jon Williams had 10 points and 7 assists.
After trailing by seven at halftime, taking their first lead of the day, 43-41, at 10:52 after a dunk by freshman guard Cameron Wilbon and falling behind again, 47-43, the Colonials used a 17-1 surge to change their fate.
RMU shot 28.6 percent in the first half and 63.3 percent in the second half (46.6 total) compared to Bryant’s 39.1 percent total.
“I thought [the game was] a really good kind of test of how we could handle a little discomfort and a little adversity in that first half,” Toole said. “We had a not good shooting half, and credit Bryant for coming out and playing zone, kind of mixing it up. Didn’t allow us to really get into an offensive rhythm, there in the first half. But I thought we did have some good looks that we didn’t make, and so that’s all we talked about at halftime.”
A steal and fast-break layup by junior guard Sayveon McEwen gave the Colonials a 48-47 lead, then came seven straight points by Coalmon to lead the charge. He later hit a 3-pointer to put RMU up 10 points.
The Colonials, who had 20 assists to the Bulldogs’ five, cruised the rest of the way.
“You could just see there was a better body language to him, there was a better energy and urgency to him, and I thought he was key,” Toole said of Coalmon. “Obviously the 3-pointer was huge, but the offensive rebound putback, those two little short jump shots from the high post, and that’s what he can do, and we need him to do it.”
Robert Morris entered the game coming off two heartbreakers, a 76-73 loss to Saint Francis (Pa.) and a 97-94 double overtime loss to Fairleigh Dickinson. The Colonials got off to a sizzling 7-1 start in NEC play before those two consecutive losses, though they never lost possession of first place.
“It feels good to get back on a roll, and now we’ve just got to take care of our business on Saturday and keep rolling after that,” Coalmon said.
Bryant opened up with an 18-9 lead and led, 31-24, at halftime, after RMU was held to 1 for 13 from 3 and shot 28.6 percent from the field (8 for 28). Their 24 firsthalf points weren’t a season low, however. That came in the win against St. Francis Brooklyn Jan. 10 (18 points).
Next up, Robert Morris plays host to Central Connecticut at 4 p.m. Saturday.