Robert Morris defeated St. Francis (PA) by a score of 60-57 to advance to the NEC championship game Tuesday.
Things didn't start pretty for the colonials. The ball wasn't moving, the team was taking contested shots, and no one was attacking the basket against a smaller team. Credit to St. Francis, who did play some nice individual defense and held Robert Morris scoreless through a ten minute stretch. At half, RMU had 15 points. Fifteen. But was only down five thanks to a stout defensive effort of their own and some rim outs of Ben Millaud-Meunier three pointers.
Then RMU started to look like RMU again. Karvel Anderson (held scoreless in the first half) took it to himself to get to the rim and got to the line the first two possessions. Then Lucky Jones knocked down some shots, Ant Myers-Pate got to the rim, and RMU was leading again. The colonials teetered on pulling away throughout the second half but the Red Flash hung around and made it a four point game after back-to-back Malik Harmon three pointers and a Ronnie Drinnon steal and slam.
St. Francis had the ball with a chance to tie and the shot clock off. Robert Morris went with a man-to-man defense with David Appolon featured on Millaud-Meunier, who had the ball. RMU opted not to foul, but Appolon made a great play to poke the ball out of Millaud-Meunier's hands. Malik Harmon picked up the loose ball with little time remaining and chucked up a 26 foot three pointer that just missed and the game was over.
Analysis:
-CHAMPIONSHIP GAME WOOOOOOOOO
-This game completely changed when RMU stopped settling for jump shots and attacked the rim.
-St. Francis is on the upswing. No seniors. They'll be back.
-Another nice game from Lucky Jones, who finished with 18 points on 7-15 shooting, seven rebounds, and three assists. He continues to be playing good all-around basketball and showed up in some huge moments, like when he grabbed Kavon Stewart's miss on the front end of a one-and-one situation forced another foul.
-Speaking of fouling, this was an oddly officiated game. In the first half, nothing was called. I think I could have ran on the floor and decked Dom Major without getting a foul called. I think it was a big reason why Karvel struggled to get separation in the first half. Then the second half came and both teams ended up in the double bonus. It was just odd. If something is a foul, it should be called that way consistently through the whole game. It's disgusting we're still having these problems.
-As I stated earlier, Karvel did struggle to get open and find good looks but still finished with 21 points, going 12-12 from the line. Greg Brown shadowed him for most of the game and did about as good of a job as you can but great players will find different ways to score.
-I'm not sure what more I can say about David Appolon anymore. HE ONLY MAKES WINNING PLAYS. To poke the ball out of Millaud-Meunier's hands the way he did was unreal. He had three rebounds and did a nice job running the floor for a bucket off his only steal. Good things happen when App is around the ball.
-Wasn't thrilled with the performance of Stephan Hawkins on the defensive end. Thought he should have had a big day rebounding too, but whatever. Aaron Tate grabbed five boards and played a solid overall game.
-Really nice crowd at the Chuck today. I thought that was the best all-around atmosphere the Chuck had since the Kentucky game. I was truly impressed. Good job everyone.
-Mount St. Mary's upset Wagner in the semifinals, so that's who RMU will be squaring off with Tuesday.
-Chris Cappella
-@C_Cappella
No comments:
Post a Comment