Robert Morris is in the thick of a five-team battle for the Horizon League regular season title. With three others at the top getting wins on Friday, they needed to take care of business against last-place Green Bay. The Colonials did that on offense, scoring 94 points and shooting 54% from the field.
But it was never a blowout, as the Phoenix scored enough to keep the margin around 10 points. Robert Morris still got the 94-85 win to move to 13-5 in league play, still .5 games back of Cleveland State for first in the standings. Here are some takeaways from the victory.
Poor defense
The 85 points were the highest Robert Morris gave up in regulation since opening night when they gave up 87 points at West Virginia. The Colonials have become a top-3 defense in the Horizon League and haven’t given up more than 79 points since the loss to Cleveland State a month ago. We’ll see if this is a potential start of a trend or just a one-off because their next opponent (Milwaukee) is a very capable offensive unit.
Kam Woods
Even with the defense not showing up, the offense was more than enough for RMU to win. Amarion Dickerson and Kam Woods each had 22 points, though Woods also had 10 rebounds and nine assists, very close to a triple-double. The former NC State guard has had his ups and downs from an efficiency standpoint but when he’s playing well, the Colonials are hard to beat.
Chris Ford’s contributions
Backup big man Ismael Plet was unable to play due to back spasms. So senior forward Ford got his minutes instead and he was fairly productive, scoring seven points in 15 minutes before fouling out. He may not get many minutes in the regular rotation, but it’s a sign of the depth the team has when they have a capable defender such as Ford available toward the end of the rotation. We’ll see if Plet is ready to go on Sunday against a Milwaukee squad with one of the top frontcourts in the Horizon.