Robert Morris Comes Up Short in Horizon League Semifinal Loss to Detroit Mercy

INDIANAPOLIS — In a season that seemingly all came back together over the last month, the mistakes and missed opportunities that piled up for Robert Morris over the final 40 minutes of the season unraveled the Colonials’ plans of repeating as Horizon League champions.

Detroit Mercy usurped the reigning champs on the same floor that they punched their ticket to the Big Dance on a season ago.

“Disappointing to have our season end the way it did today,” Robert Morris head coach Andy Toole said. “I thought we had some good looks offensively. We weren’t able to convert on those and I think that was really a frustration for us because during the majority of the year, we were able to make some of those shots. Tonight, it didn’t didn’t happen for us.”

Despite beating Detroit Mercy in both of the regular season meetings, the Titans changed defensive schemes in the semis to limit the effectiveness of Ryan Prather Jr. and the other Colonials which worked to a tee in the second half of the Titans’ 70-64 upset.

The Titans consistently ran Prather, along with Darius Livingston Jr., off of the three-point line as the two combined to shoot just 1-of-11 from deep in the loss.

The pain that Prather felt when he sat down next to his coach following the game was evident by his red, teary eyes. His emotions spoke louder than any words that he could muster in that moment as he accepted the reality of the situation.

Just a year after celebrating an NCAA Tournament berth with his teammates in the exact same venue, Prather’s dream of leading the program back to the promise land as the leader of this season’s squad was over just like that.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t get it done,” Prather said emotionally after the loss. “I should have done more but I mean it was just a blessing to be here with everybody.”

Despite Robert Morris finishing the regular season on a seven game winning streak, and notching a second-consecutive 20-win season for the first time in a decade, the Colonials ultimately fell short of their ultimate goal of cutting down the nets at the Corteva Coliseum for the second time in as many years.

“If you’re not consistently in this position, you don’t ever get to the ultimate goal,” Toole said. “And so, sometimes the closer you get to it, the more it hurts when you don’t achieve it and that’s kind of where we’re at right now”

Robert Morris started the game off hot from the floor with a flurry of baskets from DeSean Goode and Nikolaos Chitikoudis which helped the team get going offensively but Detroit Mercy matched with a fast start from both Orlando Lovejoy and TJ Nadeau as the two combined for each of the Titans’ first 12 points in a back-and-forth exchange.

The first team to create some separation was the Colonials as they held the Titans without a field goal for more than three minutes which allowed them to grow a six-point advantage at 31-26 with just less than four minutes to go in the first half.

Just when it looked like the Colonials could start building onto their lead, a flurry of mistakes including an unforced turnover led to a 6-0 run in favor of the Titans that allowed them to tie the game up at 31 a piece. The Colonials closed the half out on a 5-2 run and took a small 36-33 lead into halftime.

Robert Morris opened the second half with some good energy as Goode and Kaleb Brown combined to re-extend the Colonials lead back up to six, the largest lead that they held all night, but then Detroit Mercy went on what ended up as a game-deciding 14-2 run over the next four minutes that gave them a 54-45 lead midway through the half.

To the Colonials credit, they managed to dig themselves out of the nine-point hole over the next couple of minutes with an 8-2 run but still found themselves down by at least one possession consistently over the final minutes.

Then, with Lovejoy’s free throws, seven of which came in the final 1:41 of the game, the Colonials never managed to even tie the game as the closest that they got to the Titans in the closing moments was 64-63 with 40 seconds to go.

The Colonials fouled Lovejoy with 26 seconds left and after he made both to extend the Titans’ lead to 66-63, the Colonials opted to go for a quick two and it looked like Ta’Zir Smith was going to find a way to sink an and-one but it rattled out sending him to the line with 10 seconds left.

Smith made the first free throw but missed the second, sending the Colonials into a frenzy trying to foul and when they finally did, they fouled Ryan Kalambay, a 70% free throw shooter.

But, he went 2-for-2 which pushed the Titans’ lead to 68-64 with just five seconds left and effectively ended the Colonials season.

“As I told the guys in the locker room, for the guys that are moving on, hopefully, there’s a lot of lessons that are learned because of this and the guys that are returning, hopefully, it’s a motivation and now a further understanding of what it takes to be a championship level team,” Toole concluded.

As the 2025-26 season comes to an end for Andy Toole and his Robert Morris squad, transfer portal season is about to heat up as early as this week for the Colonials’ program.

With just three players from the roster officially out of eligibility following the conclusion of the season, there is a chance that Toole can keep at least some of his roster intact but with NIL dominating the college landscape, there is no guarantee that anybody returns.

Stick with Robert Morris Sports Now throughout the offseason for all transfer portal and offseason news.