Defense is key as Robert Morris holds off Bryant
Guard Josh Williams regains scoring touch with barrage of 3-point shots
It had been awhile since Robert Morris had seen the usual Josh Williams.
Normally, the fifth-year senior guard is a walking bucket — the type of unconscious shooter that can take over a game.
In the four games prior to
Thursday’s matchup with Bryant, though, Williams hadn’t scored more than 10 points in a game.
Against the Bulldogs, the old Williams showed up again.
Donning a bright yellow pair of Spongebob Squarepants socks, Williams scored 21 points, hitting eight of his 11 shots, including 5-of-6 3 -pointers. Thanks in large part to that effort, the Colonials (11-11 overall, 7-2 NEC) edged Bryant (10-11, 2-6), 6454.
“I didn’t have it going those four games, my teammates stepped in and made some plays,” Williams said after the game. “... So it was good to be back home, because now I can get my shots up and get a new feel for the ball again, so it was good.”
For much of the game,
Robert Morris held a sizable lead, stretching it out to a 13point advantage for a time. Still, the Bulldogs fought back, making it a threepoint, 57-54 game with 2:44 to go.
Bryant didn’t score a single point from then on, and the Colonials hit most of their free throws to close it out.
Robert Morris’ win stemmed from that defensive success. Bryant struggled to make shots the whole night, finishing 28.8% from the field. While some of that can be attributed to simply missing shots, the Colonials prevented quality looks and congested passing lanes, forcing 16 turnovers along the way.
“We keep trying to remind them and everything in our locker room dictates: You’ve got to defend,” coach Andrew Toole said after the game. “So we try to smack them in the face with it as much as we can, because that’s what’s ultimately going to travel. We’ve had great shooting games, poor shooting games and everywhere in between, but the defense has got to be consistent.”
In Thursday’s early stages, the defense was the only thing working.
Bryant and the Colonials began the game 0-for-12 from the field until Robert Morris guard Jon Williams made a 3-pointer from the left wing to break that drought nearly four minutes in. But that didn’t necessarily heat up either offense.
Through a little less than 14 minutes of play, the score was 10-9 Colonials, and the teams had combined to go 6-for-36 from the field. Thankfully, for the sake of everyone involved, the teams finally started to make some jumpers from there. Josh Williams, in particular, found his groove, scoring eight points in the final five minutes of the first half, including a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer to give Robert Morris a 26-17 lead.
“I thought we were setting the game of basketball back,” Toole joked about the game’s early malaise. “I was checking to see if they were popping [the ball] out of the peach basket and we were re-jumping after every made basket. But, you know, you have two teams that are gonna compete hard, and we know how hard Bryant’s gonna play, and I thought we got a couple good looks early that we didn’t make, and I’m sure they’d say the same thing.”
In a way, though, it was the precursor for things to come: a strong defensive outing backed up by Williams’ offensive breakout to give the Colonials the edge.