By Paul Meyer
www.rmucolonials.com
Jan. 8, 2011
Meyer on Morris Link
Moon Township, Pa. - After winning in overtime at Ohio University last Sunday and losing in overtime at Wagner Thursday night, what's next for the Robert Morris University Colonials?
Heck, maybe yet another overtime game at Mount St. Mary's Saturday.
After all, games between Robert Morris and Mount St. Mary's tend to be close encounters.
The teams, which developed quite the rivalry during the previous five seasons, played each other 15 times in those five years, with the Colonials winning 10. Nine of the 15 games were decided by five points or less, including last season's regular-season finale in Emmitsburg, Md., in which the Mountaineers rallied and won, 63-61.
However, it's possible this rivalry might cool a bit.
Each team has a new head coach this season, although RMU coach Andrew Toole is no stranger to RMU-Mount St. Mary's games. He was an assistant to head coach Mike Rice in the previous three seasons. Mountaineer coach Robert Burke, though, has not been part of the rivalry.
But he has heard about it. And he expects it to resume Saturday.
"From what I've picked up on, I would say yes,'' Burke said. "Close games, intense games, make a rivalry.''
What makes this rivalry even stronger is the fact that the teams have played each other in each of the past five Northeast Conference Tournaments. And the winner of this game in the NEC tournament has won each of the past three NEC championships, including Robert Morris the previous two seasons.
"I think it will continue to be a good rivalry moving forward because when you have two good teams that compete and play hard it turns into a good rivalry,'' Toole said. "Our guys are aware of that rivalry. We know we lost down there last year in a tough game, and I think their guys will know that as well.''
Colonial senior Gary Wallace isn't quite sure what to expect this time around.
"I guess we'll just have to see,'' Wallace said. "A lot of the guys are gone from Mount St. Mary's and us and there are different coaches, so I guess we'll see what happens when the ball tips off.''
Tipoff Saturday is scheduled for 1 p.m., which doesn't give the Colonials a lot of time to recover from their back-to-back overtime games.
That's why Toole scheduled a relatively light practice at Mount St. Mary's Friday afternoon.
"They'll be sore from the overtime games,'' he said. "We'll have some mental preparation and rest ourselves and try to get some mental focus and mental desire to want to get a win.''
Per their recent wont, the Colonials began the game at Wagner sluggishly, falling behind, 11-4, in the first seven and-a-half minutes, then trailing, 22-14, with five minutes left in the first half.
"That's the fifth game in a row we've been behind eight or more points to start,'' Toole said. "It's really hard to win games like that.''
The Colonials, down 37-30 at halftime, did hold a modest lead for a while in the second half and still led, 63-61, with 36 seconds to play. However, Wagner rallied to force overtime and protected its lead in the extra session by going 8-for-8 from the free throw line.
Karon Abraham, who scored 28 points last Sunday at Ohio University, established another career high with 32 points at Wagner.
"Offensively, he was terrific,'' Toole said.
The 83-78 loss at Wagner dropped RMU to 1-2 in the NEC. That record includes a one-point win at Long Island Dec. 2 and a two-point loss at St. Francis (N.Y.) Dec. 4.
Some might think that being 1-2 out of the gate isn't a bad thing, considering all three games have been played on the road, the young Colonials have been ultra-competitive in all three and they're this close to being 3-0.
However, at least one other person deems being 1-2 a bad thing.
"Right now, it's bad. Right now, we're 1-2,'' Toole said.
Wagner improved to 3-0 and is the only NEC team without a league loss.
"At practice, I tell the kids, 'You were picked to finish 11th (by the league coaches),''' first-year Wagner coach Dan Hurley told the Staten Island Advance. "Saying that might not put the ball in the basket or lead to an assist, but it does have an effect.''
Mount St. Mary's is 2-1 in the NEC after ending an eight-game losing streak with a 63-56 victory over visiting St. Francis (Pa.) Thursday night.
Mountaineer senior guard Jean Cajou, who missed the first 14 games of the season because of personal reasons before returning last Sunday, did not play against Saint Francis (Pa.). "Coach's decision'' was the reason given by the school for Cajou not playing against the Red Flash.
RMU OT: This is the fourth time in its Division I history that Robert Morris has played back-to-back overtime games in the same season and the first time since Feb. 17 and 19, 2000, when it beat Central Connecticut State, 71-64, and lost to Quinnipiac, 102-99, at the Charles L. Sewall Center.
The last time the Colonials played back-to-back overtime games on the road was Jan. 12 and 14, 1991, when it won at Wagner, 103-98, and lost at Monmouth, 90-84.
Robert Morris was involved in back-to-back overtime games a fifth time - it lost at Ohio University, 75-74, in the finale of the 1978-79 season, then lost to Northeastern, 76-73, in Providence, R.I., in the opener of the 1979-80 season.
FT WOES: Monmouth, statistically the worst free throw shooting team in the NEC (59.8 percent), had a chance to deal coaches' preseason favorite Quinnipiac a second straight league loss Thursday night, but the short-handed Hawks were just 2-of-11 from the free throw line in the second half and lost at home, 72-70.
Monmouth, which plays at Robert Morris next Saturday, was without guards Will Campbell, Jordan Davis and Matt Pritchett and forward Gary Cox, who average a collective 21.5 points per game, because they were placed on indefinite suspensions because of academic reasons.
Quinnipiac played without standout Justin Rutty, who averages 16.6 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. Rutty injured an elbow during the pregame shoot around.
NEC NUGGETS: Abraham's 32-point game at Wagner was the first 30-point-plus performance by a Colonial since Feb. 26, 2007, when A.J. Jackson scored 34 points in RMU's 90-74 home victory against Long Island … Mount St. Mary's is 25-7 at home over the past three-plus seasons and has won 17 of its past 19 home league games … Fairleigh Dickinson lost to visiting Sacred Heart, 67-50, Thursday night primarily because the Knights were 1 of 16 from beyond the arc … Long Island's 75-55 victory at Bryant produced this statistical oddity - the teams combined to shoot a higher percentage from 3-point range than they did from the free throw line. LIU and Bryant combined made 14-of-43 from deep (32.6 percent) and just 6-of-19 from the free throw line (31.6).
