SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Robert Morris has become arguably the flagship program in the Northeast Conference since about 2007. They have been to four straight NEC championship games, having won it a couple of times, and a big constant during this run of success has been head coach Andrew Toole, who helped them win two outright regular season NEC titles and share another one as an assistant, and now has won an outright title in his third season running the program after Thursday night’s thrilling 77-75 win at Bryant.
This title didn’t come easily. They never do, but some come a little harder than others, and Robert Morris’ 21-9 record, including a 13-4 mark in NEC play, hides some of that.
Let’s dispense with one thing: this is no underdog, as the Colonials were picked second in the NEC’s preseason coaches poll, getting the only first place votes that two-time defending champion LIU did not get. Much was expected of this team, as they have a good mix of talent and experience. Their opponent on Thursday night was picked tenth in the 12-team conference and was a decided underdog entering the season. That Thursday night’s game had the implications it did – Robert Morris clinched the regular season title by winning and Bryant would all but clinch had they won – tells you what an amazing story Bryant’s season is.
But Robert Morris is a pretty good team and story, too.
The Colonials started slowly overall and in conference play. They opened up 1-3, getting blown out at Rider and against Lehigh in the NIT Season Tip-Off. They lost a tough one at Xavier. Their road to the NCAA Tournament is conference play, but non-conference play helps shape that and it wasn’t good. Then they lost the first two conference games at home to Bryant and Central Connecticut State, which had to raise some eyebrows.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” said sophomore Lucky Jones, who scored 17 points in Thursday’s win. “It was a reality check. We weren’t ourselves at the beginning of the season, we had some difficult moments, but in this stretch we just pulled together, stayed humble and stayed together.”
The Colonials regrouped to win the next six, starting with two on the road, and they haven’t lost at home since then. That will be big should they reach the championship game again, as they have had to go on the road for that the last three years.
Robert Morris also had to do something on Thursday night that they had not done all season: win after trailing at the half. The Colonials’ record mirrored the halftime score perfectly: 20-0 when leading at the half, 0-9 when trailing at the half. Bryant led 37-31 at halftime on Thursday night, had a 24-13 rebounding edge and shot 50 percent to the Colonials’ 33.3 percent. Toole challenged this veteran team in the locker room.
“At halftime, I really challenged the guys to break that trend,” Toole said. “I thought in the second half we started to attack them more than they were attacking us.”
The Colonials did it right away, scoring the first two baskets as part of an 8-3 run to get within one. After they took a 44-42 lead, Bryant scored the next eight points and appeared to have all the momentum again, to say nothing of the boisterous crowd. Robert Morris has played in such settings before, so they started to come back, but Bryant got the lead back up to 59-54 when the game turned on account of Jones and Karvel Anderson.
Anderson, who had a game-high 24 points on 8-17 shooting, made an old-fashioned three-point play, then Jones gave them the lead with a three-pointer. Less than a minute later, Jones gave them the lead for good on a jumper, but they never led by more than five as Bryant seemingly matched them shot-for-shot down the end in a thriller.
“They were hitting really tough shots, three-point shots,” said Bryant’s Alex Francis. “What can you do with that?”
They hit a lot of those tough shots in the clutch. In the final seven minutes, Robert Morris shot 8-12 from the field, including 3-5 from long range, and had just two turnovers the entire evening. They had to do that: Bryant shot 59 percent on the night to stay close despite 16 turnovers and a big rebounding edge.
Anderson hasn’t had a simple path here. While his shooting on Thursday night was no aberration, he’s a player who started 10 games earlier in the season but was moved to the bench early in NEC play. He responded by being the perfect shooter off the bench, and did it again on Thursday in scoring 17 of his 24 points in the second half. Anderson has also battled a wrist injury, but since moving to the bench he has shot 53 percent from long range.
“He was terrific tonight,” said Tool. “He took a couple of really tough ones in the first half, and I just told him to calm down – you’re going to get your looks. In the second half, he did a really nice job of attacking the basket, where he got a three-point play on Francis at one point.”
Toole has been at the school since 2007 during this run of success. He’s been no small part of it, and no one familiar with his character and basketball intelligence is surprised. This time around, the Colonials had some slow starts they had to rebound from, in addition to a halftime deficit with much on the line. Their reward for bucking a season-long trend when it mattered most is to be at home as long as they’re alive in the conference tournament.
