Robert Morris Dominates Youngstown State in Second Half, Punches Ticket to Horizon League Semifinal

MOON TWP, Pa. — In what was a rematch of last year’s Horizon League Championship, Robert Morris (22-10) used the energy from the nearly sold out UPMC Events Center and a red-hot second half from Ryan Prather Jr. to knock off Youngstown State in the opening round of the 2026 Horizon League Tournament.

Both the Colonials and the Penguins suffered some big-game jitters and it showed during the low-scoring, defensive first half.

“I know there’s going to be [jitters] and no one wants to believe that,” Robert Morris head coach Andy Toole said following the game. “I have been doing this long enough now where it doesn’t matter if there’s 3,500 people or there’s 500 people in there. This is a conference tournament game. There’s no safety net. You lose today and you’re handing in the jersey tomorrow. … So, that provides a different level of anxiety, a different level of emotion.”

Robert Morris shot just 35% in the first 20 minutes but the Colonial Crazies helped make up for the lack of scoring as they managed to affect the Youngstown State offense as the Penguins shot just 22% which led to a 28-23 lead for the Colonials at the half.

“Student section was phenomenal. We had students on the on the third deck up there. It was awesome. I think if you come to this building and you put people in it, it gets loud quick and it becomes an awesome environment to play a basketball game in.” Robert Morris head coach Andy Toole said. “I thought our crowd did a great job tonight and I think guys fed off that for sure.”

The Penguins opened the second half with what appeared like a clean conscious as they rattled off five quick points to tie the game up but Prather’s first three of the game ended the run and started the end for the visitors as he and the rest of the Colonials heated up en route to the 68-53 conference tournament victory.

Prather, the Colonials leading scorer this season and usual second-half threat as of late, entered halftime with just 2 points despite having multiple clean looks in the opening half but after he saw his first three-pointer drop, he went onto score 22 of his game-high 24 points in the second half which included five threes.

“Ryan’s a terrific shooter and and sometimes you try to give those guys some space,” Toole said about what changed for Prather in the second half. “I’ll chime in and kind of give him like what I’m seeing. … I think he needed to make just a slight adjustment with the basketball that allowed him to get it off a little bit smoother and I thought that really helped him as he caught fire and then he did a great job of not only making threes but then mixing up drives um putting pressure on their their interior defense as well.”

The game started off slow as Youngstown State led just 4-1 by the time that the first media timeout rolled around and not much changed after the next four minutes with the Colonials missing each of their first six shots of the evening.

After Albert Vargas, who missed the last six games of the regular season, sunk a layup at the 13:46 mark to pull the Colonials back to within two, both teams went on very long scoring droughts. The Colonials were the first team to break the pattern when the Horizon League Player of the Year, DeSean Goode, tied the game up at 8-8 with his first field goal of the night.

The Colonials capped off a 6-0 scoring run and hopped back into the lead just a few possessions later when freshman Samuel Obenjo hammered down a dunk as the shot-clock expired but the lead was short lived as Youngstown State finally got back on the board after a nearly seven-minute drought when the always dangerous Cris Carroll hit his first three of the night.

By the last media stoppage of the half, Robert Morris was clinging to a small 22-16 lead as neither team was executing efficiently on the offensive side of things.

After Youngstown State’s 5-0 run that tied the game back up at 28 all to start the second half, Prather started to heat up as he sunk his first three of the night which ended up being the point that the Colonials claimed the lead for good.

Following Prather’s first three, the two teams went onto trade points over the next couple of minutes before a layup from Prather in which he went up-and-under the rim to convert started to tilt the momentum of the game and the crowd fulling into Robert Morris’ favor.

“My coaches and teammates, they stuck with me,” Prather said about what changed for him in the second half. “I only had two points at half. They just told me to keep being confident, get my shot up and just keep being aggressive. So, they helped me tremendously. Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to do it.”

He followed his crafty finish at the rim up with his second of five second-half triples which finally put some cushion between the two team as the Colonials led 41-35. After the Penguins initially appeared to quiet the crowd with a quick layup on the other end, the Colonials started to mount what was the game-deciding 16-2 run.

While Prather and Livingston added multiple field goals each during the run, it was the play from Ta’Zir Smith off of the bench that really helped engineer the scoring streak as forced a pair of turnovers, hauled in some key rebounds and added a field goal of his own.

“I think it’s great,” Toole said about his bench players stepping up. “Being a great teammate and contributing when your name is called and knowing what you’re supposed to be doing, to me, that’s the ultimate sign of respect for the program, for your teammates and your opportunity. I think that you’ve seen different guys step up and contribute and I think that that’s really what it’s all about because if you don’t have those contributions, it doesn’t work.”

By the time that Cam Palak’s three ended the Colonials’ long run, Andy Toole’s squad held a 52-37 lead and looked determined to finish the job. Just a few minutes later, Prather spearheaded another 10-2 scoring stretch that put the game out of reach as his fourth three-pointer of the night pushed his team’s lead to 20 points at 64-44 at the final media stoppage of the game.

The win punched Robert Morris’ ticket back to Indianapolis as part of the Horizon League’s final four for the second-straight season. Not only does that show what Andy Toole has been able to do via the transfer portal over the last two seasons but it has helped put the program back on the mid-major map as an annual contender, and that is credit to the man in charge.

“It is because of a lot of hard work from from a lot of players and coaches,” Toole said about heading back to Indianapolis and where the program currently stands. “Obviously, last year some guys that became a part of this really wanted to rewrite their own basketball stories and they came together as a group.”

“Then, we have this group come in and and and now the only thing that happened to them is expectations grew,” Toole continued. “Over the year they’ve gotten better and they’ve grown and they’ve come together and that’s part of what this is all about.”

Robert Morris avoids the one-game second round by being the second-best seed remaining in the tournament which means that the next time that the Colonials hit the hardwood will be on Monday night in a semifinal matchup against Detroit Mercy.

The Colonials swept the regular-season series over the Titans but will need to also win the rubber match in order to play for its second-consecutive Horizon League Championship and NCAA Tournament berth.