Frontcourt heroics sets up Robert Morris to be Horizon League Cinderella

Entering the season, Robert Morris was projected to finish toward the bottom of the Horizon League once again. And it looked that way in the first couple of weeks in conference conference, with the Colonials going 2-4 and a couple of bounces away from being 2-5.

But RMU was able to beat Wright State in that game, setting off a winning run no one expected. Since the home loss to Cleveland State on Jan 8th, the Colonials have won eight of its last nine games, with the loss coming in a game versus Wright State, they were ahead late.

The last two wins came with career performances from their starting forwards. In the 71-56 home win over Detroit Mercy, Amarion Dickerson broke the single-game program record of eight blocks to go with 12 points and seven rebounds. Dickerson, who led all of Junior College in blocks a year ago at Mineral Area, is currently 3rd in the country in total blocks with 68, with 7’3 Gabe Dynes of Youngstown State only ahead of him in the Horizon.

But Dickerson didn’t have the same impact on Saturday at Northern Kentucky. He was plagued with foul trouble the entire game, limited to just four points in 16 minutes before fouling out with around six minutes to go. Yet another player stepped up when needed in Alvaro Folgueiras, who went for a career-high 35 points and 10 rebounds on an efficient 12/14 FG shooting. While Kam Woods was the hero late, the sophomore forward kept RMU in the game when they were trailing by 7-10 points for most of the second half.

Thanks to the frontcourt stars, the Colonials are 10-5 in the conference, tied with Youngstown State for third in the standings, and in position to both get a first-round bye in the conference tournament and host in the second round also. However, they take on the top two teams coming up, facing Cleveland State on the road and Purdue-Fort Wayne on Senior Day. 

Robert Morris lost to both of those teams in the first go-around but is playing its best ball in years. This upcoming week will tell us their chances of winning the conference, needing both bigs to continue playing at a high level.