RMU-Lafayette reactions

Ca$h money Karvel Anderson came up huge last night. 2-0!!! (photo credit: Justin Berl)

Last night, your Robert Morris Colonials improved to 2-0 with a 90-81 win over Lafayette College. I can’t even begin to describe how pumped I am. I’m not sure if it’s too much coffee or pure adrenaline, but this was a huge win.

Our guy Lee Kunkel was at the game covering for City of Basketball Love. I had night class and missed the first half and parts of the second, but here are some of the takeaways we had.

-Vets stepping up: Karvel Anderson had 21 points, 16 of which came in the second half. He was awesome in every aspect of his game, going 7-13 from the field, 2-4 from three, and 5-5 (!!!!!) from the free throw line. He took the game over. His aggressiveness, especially at the game, was that of a closer. He smelled the blood in the water and took advantage. Lucky Jones added 14, including a huge three late in the game.

Lee: Karvel Anderson is a closer. The senior scored 16 of his 21 points in the game's final 6:15, and hit a few TOUGH shots. Last year, we got to know Karvel as a dead eye 3-point shooter --and he still is-- but he has added to his game. He can really score in the paint and hit tough pull-ups all over the court. His wrist is finally healthy, and I think that's really helping his aggressiveness on the offensive end. 

-Running point: I didn’t notice anything too wrong with Anthony Myers-Pate’s game but then again I only saw a little over a quarter of this contest. It didn’t sound like it went well. I’ve said this a thousand times before, but it’s all confidence with him. When he starts knocking down some shots, his game is going to flourish in a spectacular way. Trust me.

Lee: I love Ant, but he has to pick it up, and knows that. 3-10 from the free throw stripe, 0-4 from three. It's all confidence. He went 0-3 from the floor, 0-2 from the line, had zero assists and two turnovers last night. One game erases all of that, and I expect that one game Thursday. RMU needs the senior to pick it up, and he will. 

-Running point part II: Kavon Stewart has been suspended. More on that later. In the mean time, it looks like David Appolon is going to play more and more as the back-up point guard. He had maybe his best game in a colonial uniform last night, going 4-5 from the field and 2-2 from deep (10 points). Besides that, he did usual David Appolon things; played great D, grabbed five boards, and even had a key block late. This could be a nice role for Dave. His perimeter defense is clearly a huge advantage and in a point guard role he can try and see the floor more and drive to the basket rather than shoot. His jump shot was good last night, but is still not really a strength of his.

Lee: David Appolon came up big. I wont waste space here, so check out my piece on colonials corner. Appolon steps up.

-DEPTH: This is where all the good vibes are coming from. The starters struggled early in the game so Toole went to an Appolon-Oliver-Newton-Worthem-Hawkins lineup that paced RMU in the first half. Ten guys played 15+ minutes and five reached double digits in scoring. Juanie Newton had a key steal and jam late that helped close the game. He also led the team in rebounding. Chuck Oliver went 2-5 from three (I’ll take that every game) and, from what I can gather, Hawk played like an absolute beast.

This team is better than you and I thought. It’s better than Toole thought. You can just tell.

Lee: Juanie Newton and Charles Oliver are really good. This was the first time I got to see the duo in action, and I was impressed. Newton has some stupid bounce, and can shoot it well from three. He hit some big shots, had a key steal and breakaway layup, and continues to impress me. Oliver is a pure scorer. He can really shoot it, and can get to the basket with ease. I love these two guys, they're going to be a force.

-Three point shooting: Again, very impressive. Lafayette did a really good job shutting down Villanova from three (held them to 16 percent) and hitting the three ball themselves. Last night? The script was flipped, as some may like to say. RMU shot 24 three’s, making 11, good for 45 percent from deep. That’s very good. Lafayette went 9-30 from downtown, good for 30 percent. I like those numbers.

Lee: Offense, offense, OFFENSE!! Through two games, RMU is averaging 88 points per game. 88!!!! Guys that's a lot of points, against two good defensive teams. Nice start O.

-School spirit: This had no effect on the game but I’d like to share anyway. I was at IM basketball last night and we had the game on. We were supposed to start the next round of IM games at 8:45 but the Colonials were in a close one, so we delayed the start of our games and about 20 of us huddled around a laptop to catch the end of the win. It was pretty cool.

-Other odds and end (by Lee): Aaron Tate is a good fit for this team. He's not going to wow you by putting up 20 points in a game, but he guards multiple positions, can finish inside, set screens, does all the little things. For a team with so many offensive weapons, they need a guy like this. His hustle may have saved the game last night. In a tie game, Lafayette had a breakaway layup to take the lead. Tate motored down the court, contested what seemed like an easy layup, and forced a miss. RMU got the ball, and quickly got it down to Mike McFadden for a go ahead dunk. Love the hustle Aaron.

Toole becomes a better coach every day. Sure, Andy rallied his troops down 11 to a very good team on the road and got them to win by nine. That's impressive. He also did it with out his backup PG, and the starter played one of the worst games of his career. But I'm not talking about any of that. Toole once again made the best move for his program, rather than his team by suspending Kavon Stewart for a violation of team rules. I don't know the particulars, but I can bet Kavon will learn from this and better off for it. Hope he is back soon, and kudo's to Toole for making what he believes was the right call for the young man, rather than making the best decision for his team. 

Eastern Michigan is up next, more on that matchup coming up the next two days. Feel free to leave comments below.

Happy hump day!

--Chris Cappella

-@C_Cappella

Lee Kunkel (@Kunkel5) --