By Paul Meyer
www.rmucolonials.com
Dec. 4, 2009
Meyer on Morris Link
Photo accompanying story courtesy of Christopher Horner / Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Moon Township, Pa. - There is, of course, "The Twelve Days of Christmas'' tune at this time of year.
This year, too, though, there also was the less widely-known "The Eleven Days of Mount St. Mary's Week'' ditty.
Especially echoing around inside the Sewall Center.
The Robert Morris Colonials heard that one a lot since playing at Albany Nov. 22.
That left them no time to go shopping for a partridge in a pear tree. Or two turtle doves. Or even five golden rings - although they will receive their 2009 Northeast Conference championship rings before Saturday evening's game against Wagner.
The point is, coach Mike Rice wanted to get his young team focused on playing Mount St. Mary's in the 11 days it had between the Albany game and its Northeast Conference opener.
"We discussed for those 11 days how hard it is to win a Division I basketball game,'' Rice said. "How hard you have to play every single possession. I think we improved over those 11 days.''
The proof of that was in the plum pudding Thursday night at the Sewall Center.
The young Colonials built an early comfortable lead and wound up holding off Mount St. Mary's 63-57, raising their record to 2-4.
"I thought the intensity and the effort and energy were a lot like teams of the past two years,'' Rice said. "There was a consistent effort. It was great for our team. We needed to get better. Our teams of old have always improved over time, and you have to do that if you're going to win the NEC championship.
"We're becoming a better team. The first five games, I don't know, they talked the talk. I don't know if they walked the walk as far as really sticking together and really picking each other up. Sometimes picking each other up means yelling at each other in the huddle or being nice. They did that (against Mount St. Mary's). They were together. There was communication. There was a togetherness that hadn't been there the first five games.''
"We went in with the mindset that we had to stay together because we haven't stayed together so far this year,'' junior guard Gary Wallace said. "This is a nice stepping stone. We'd been trying to find ourselves for the first five games. We've made strides every game. This was a good test for us to see where we are as a team and tonight I think those questions were answered.''
"All the other games, we might have put a half together or certain spurts together,'' senior guard Mezie Nwigwe said, "but this was the first game we actually played the whole game hard and we all stayed together throughout the whole game. I was impressed that we stuck together and didn't let up.''
The Colonials, who have six newcomers on their roster, certainly had their chances to "let up.''
Mount St. Mary's never did hold a lead in the game, but the Mountaineers seemed poised to crack the Colonials several times in the second half.
They cut a nine-point halftime deficit to five, 34-29, four and-a-half minutes into the second half, but a basket by freshman Brad Piehl and another field goal by Wallace pushed the RMU lead back to nine a minute later.
Mount St. Mary's got back to within six two minutes after that, but senior Jimmy Langhurst restored the Colonial lead to nine with a deep ball at the 11:07 mark.
Finally, Mount St. Mary's, picked the league coaches to win the NEC championship this season, cut its deficit to one at 49-48 with 6:50 left.
However, 18 seconds later, sophomore Russell Johnson drained a three from the left wing, making it 52-48.
Two minutes later, Robert Morris led just 52-50. But another field goal from Johnson, a layup by Rob Robinson and two free throws from Nwigwe gave the Colonials a 60-53 edge with 1:19 remaining.
Then came the finisher.
On a 3-on-1 break, Langhurst made a perfect pass to Robinson, who slammed home the exclamation basket.
It was 62-56 and all but done.
What impressed Wallace about all that?
"Not breaking down when things got crazy,'' Wallace said. "We've had some issues with that, but I think we realized that we have to have each other's backs on the floor. The coaches can only do so much. They can teach and tell us what to do, but we're the guys out there who are playing the game, who are trying to get stops, running the offense.
"We realized tonight that in a big way that it starts with us - especially as upperclassmen. We have to teach the young guys. We have to be there for them - and vice versa when we're having bad spurts. They did an excellent job helping us keep our heads in the game when things were bad.''
Rice had expressed some concern a few days before the game about his team's ability to handle the mental toughness of veteran Mountaineer guards Jeremy Goode and Jean Cajou in a close game.
Thus, Rice was pleased by how his team responded to the Mountaineers' runs.
"We could have been really nervous,'' Rice said. "We could have kind of folded. We could have started to point fingers at why we weren't up more. But we stuck together. I learned something about our team tonight - and we got it from so many different players.
"For us to be good, our freshmen are going to have to play older very soon, and I thought they took a nice step forward. We responded. We grew as a team and we certainly stuck together.''
SAME OLD, SAME OLD? Even though this was the 13th game in just over five seasons between these two rivals, the intensity didn't seem nearly the same as when they met in last season's NEC championship game in the Sewall Center, a game the Colonials won 48-46.
"It's a rivalry game, but I don't know,'' Mount St. Mary's coach Milan Brown said. "It was a little bit different. Tonight was a little bit different. I don't know if it's that both of us have gone to the NCAA tournament, so now we're going, 'Both of us have a trophy.' But you could tell it was a little bit different.
"Maybe because some of the faces have changed. To me personally it did feel a little bit different not seeing (RMU's Jeremy) Chappell out there. It felt different. Just like it felt different for me not being able to turn and ask Marcus (Mitchell) and Sam (Atupem) to get in the game. The guys who started this battle weren't here -- even going back to (RMU's Tony) Lee and (A.J.) Jackson. But, if we keep having games like this, the new faces should hopefully it get revved up again.''
NEXT UP: Wagner (0-5) enters the Sewall Center Saturday night not so fresh from a 69-42 loss at Saint Francis (Pa.) Thursday night. The Seahawks led, 26-22, with just over three minutes left in the first half, but then scored only five points over the next 17 minutes, during which the Red Flash built a 61-31 lead.
"We fell behind and we started taking bad shots,'' Wagner coach Mike Deane told the Staten Island Advance. "We showed a lack of aggression and made some very poor decisions. When you are as inexperienced as we are, that combination is going to cause problems.''
The Seahawks have seven newcomers on their roster - two redshirt freshmen and five true freshmen.
"I expected more of this group, and I expected it sooner,'' Deane said. "Right now, we're struggling to learn how to play together. All we can do is get back to work and get ready for Robert Morris.''
Wagner certainly isn't bashful about casting up the treys, shooting 135 times from beyond the arc in its first five games. The Seahawks, however, haven't too good at it. They've made just 32 threes (23.6 percent). And in their past three games, they're only 10-of-71 (14.1 percent) from deep.
AROUND THE NEC: Central Connecticut State coach Howie Dickenman made defending the trey a point of emphasis in the preseason, and his Blue Devils seemed to have taken that to heart. In their 63-50 win at St. Francis (N.Y.) Thursday night, the Blue Devils held the Terriers to 5-of-21 shooting from three-point range. In its first six games, CCSU has limited its opposition to 28.1 percent accuracy from deep, second-best in the NEC … Long Island, picked to finish second in the NEC, opened league play Thursday with a 62-46 victory against Bryant (0-7) … Senior guard Jaytornah Wisseh had 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Blackbirds … LIU freshman forward Jamal Olasewere also had a double-double - 13 points and 11 rebounds - as Long Island enjoyed a 44-28 edge on the glass … Bryant senior Cecil Gresham, the leading scorer for the Bulldogs at 15.0 points per game, missed his second straight contest with a knee injury and is questionable for Saturday's game against St. Francis (N.Y.).
