Robert Morris Withstands Second-Half Surge, Completes Season Sweep of Youngstown State

Robert Morris (16-10, 8-7) is at the point of the year where it needs to stack some wins in order to climb as high as it can it the standings.

After upsetting the league’s top team on Wednesday, the Colonials managed to notch their second-straight win after withstanding a fierce second-half surge at Youngstown State (12-13, 5-9) on Sunday afternoon, beating the Penguins 72-66.

The game started off on a DeSean Goode basket, something that the announcers would say often as he led the game in scoring with 24 points including the game-clinching three with under a minute left.

The two teams traded buckets and the lead multiple times over the next handful of minutes before a three from Goode gave the Colonials a 20-17 lead at the 11:31 mark of the opening half.

After the Penguins got a quick two back to make it a one-point game, the Colonials started to creat some seperation as they opened up a 12-4 run that lasted the next seven minutes of the game.

The Colonials led by the score of 32-23 until an alley-oop dunk from Bryson Dawkins at the four minute mark pushed some of the momentum back into the Penguins favor. The Penguins managed to cut the deficit down to six just under a minute later on a three by Cris Carroll.

Despite the small run from the Penguins, the Colonials kept their foot on the pedal over the final three minutes of the half as they closed the period on a 7-2 run that gave them a 41-30 lead heading into halftime.

Despite holding an 11-point lead, Robert Morris quickly fell into a scoring drought to open the second half and the Penguins took full advantage as they went on a 24-4 run over the first 11 minutes of the second half and jumped ahead by nine at 54-45.

Luckily for the Colonials, just when they started to find some offensive success, the Penguins offense fell into a slump which allowed a 16-3 run in favor of Robert Morris.

The run not only helped negate some of the Penguins’ lengthy run, but it also put the Colonials back ahead 61-57 with just over four minutes left in the game.

After the two teams traded knockout level blows, it appeared as if the game would go down to the final seconds as a layup from Youngstown State’s 7-footer Imanuel Zorgvol made it just a two-point game but the Colonials quickly answered with a Kaleb Brown three that kept the Penguins at bay.

With it being a five-point Colonials lead, the game went scoreless over the next nearly two full minutes until Carroll was fouled on a three-point attempt which gave the Penguins life with just 1:18 left.

After he sunk all three free throws, the score became 64-62 but then Goode struck with a timely three at the 50-second mark which put the Colonials ahead by five once again.

Carroll got it back to a one-possession game on a layup with 31 seconds left but they still needed to foul three additional times to send the Colonials to the line. After the first foul, the Colonials stole points as Ryan Prather Jr. snuck through the defense for a crafty layup and was fouled in the process of making it with just 18 seconds left.

The Penguins added a late layup while the Colonials scored the game’s final two points on a pair of free throws from Goode.

Robert Morris will stay in the state of Ohio as its next game comes against a red-hot Cleveland State squad on Thursday before it returns back to the UPMC Events Center for games against Oakland and Wright State, who occupy second and first place in the standings respectively.