Robert Morris can’t find rhythm in 53-49 loss
What has gone well for Robert Morris in recent games did not go well Saturday at UPMC Events Center.
The Colonials (8-10, 4-1 Northeast Conference) averaged 82.5 points per game in their first four conference matchups, but they struggled to catch their usual fire against the Merrimack Warriors (11-8, 5-1), and were stuck in an ugly defensive struggle as a result, losing, 53-49.
At points in the game, it seemed Robert Morris was poised to break out of its slump and put a run together, but that run never came.
Instead, the Colonials trailed, 51-49, with 30 seconds left, but had an opportunity to tie or take the lead. Robert
the perimeter and found sophomore guard Dante Treacy in the corner, but he missed it short. The Warriors got the rebound, made two free throws and iced the game away.
The Colonials fell 53-49, snapping their four-game winning streak with their worst scoring output of the season while shooting a dismal 2-for-15 from 3-point territory.
“I just don’t think we were playing at the pace we should have been, and we knew we should have,” Treacy said after the game. “They kind of slowed us down and dictated the pace. Like [coach Andy] Toole said, they just kind of slowed us down and put the brakes on us. So I just don’t think we played at the pace we needed to.”
Perhaps most emblematic of Robert Morris’ struggles was the uncharacteristically quiet performance from fifth-year senior guard Josh Williams. Williams has paced the Colonials all season offensively, averaging 15.2 points per game, but he was held to just nine on 3of-11 shooting Saturday.
Still, he had a chance to tie the game late 46 seconds left, as he caught the ball and was fouled, giving him a one-and-one opportunity with his team down two. But he bricked the first free throw.
“Not to sound arrogant or anything, but I don’t,” Williams said when asked if he thought he was being smothered by Merrimack. “I think I took the same shots in this game as I did the last time we played them. They just didn’t fall. I hit one early, an and-one, that was probably the most heavily-contested three I took all game, and so the other ones, they just didn’t fall.”
Robert Morris’ offensive malaise held true in the first half, too. Merrimack employed a 2-3 zone defensively, scrambling to shooters and forcing the Colonials to be crisp with their passes to find good looks.
And Robert Morris actually did a pretty good job finding the soft spots early on, but the shots simply weren’t falling. Even floaters and layups in the paint wouldn’t drop. The Colonials’ defense kept them in the game, though, as they equally frustrated Merrimack on the other end of the floor.
The result was an ugly, rock fight of a first half, in which the teams combined to shoot 33% from the floor and just 2-for-15 from three. An emphatic two-handed dunk from Bramah just before the halftime buzzer put Robert Morris in the lead, 23-22 heading into the break, but the performance left a lot to be desired.
It was a trend the Colonials could never break out of, and they’ll have to find a way to regroup before taking the floor again against Sacred Heart in just 48 hours.
“Obviously that was frustrating,” Toole said. “Just unable to get any rhythm offensively at any time. And it’s unfortunate. I thought we were a step slow in a lot of our cutting, our decision-making, our urgency level on both sides of the floor, and give Merrimack credit. Obviously they came out and controlled the tempo and made some adjustments from the first game, and we weren’t able to counter those with our own. Disappointing lesson, I guess, that we’ll have to learn and try and grow from.”