Off the mark: Penguins fall to Robert Morris 77-73 in 1st round of Horizon League tourney
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YOUNGSTOWN -- A final, furious rally simply wasn't enough.
Youngstown State's Horizon League Tournament journey ended in the opening round Tuesday night, as the 7-seed Penguins couldn't overcome a poor shooting performance in a 77-73 loss to 10-seed Robert Morris at the Beeghly Center.
Trailing by 20 with 6:52 to go, the Penguins (18-14) surged back to within two possessions a handful of times, as they connected on 11 of their final 18 shots. However, up to that final comeback bid, YSU shot 15-of-52, a paltry 28.8 percent, and ultimately dug itself too large of a hole.
"Give Robert Morris a lot of credit; I thought they really took it to us tonight," YSU coach Jerrod Calhoun said. "I feel bad for our guys that worked so hard for this opportunity, and it's over in one game. But that's tournament time. That's what happens when you don't come to play a good basketball game."
Indeed, the Colonials (8-24) never trailed, and maintained a lead for 37:29 of the game's 40 minutes. As he did in the last meeting between Robert Morris and Youngstown State, Kahliel Spear paced RMU, this time scoring 19 points -- 12 of which came before halftime -- and adding 13 rebounds.
On Feb. 13, Spear scored 27 points at Beeghly as the Colonials snapped a 6-game YSU win streak with a 73-68 victory.
Behind Spear, Michael Green III added 10 points, while Enoch Cheeks scored 12 points and tallied a game-high five assists. Kam Farris added 12 points, and Matt Mayers scored 10.
As a team, Robert Morris shot an efficient 53.8 percent -- 28-for-52. The Colonials scored 40 points in the paint.
"I thought Kahliel Spear certainly carried them in the first half, and then those other guys got going," Calhoun said. "Kam Farris made shots, Michael Green made shots ... They're a team that has a great five man and a great point guard. It's kind of the recipe for success.
"In basketball, you have to have that pick and roll -- their cohesiveness in that pick and roll -- and we didn't do a really good job guarding it. That's where a lot of our breakdowns happened defensively."
All the while, YSU's offense sputtered. Dwayne Cohill scored 25 points, and Tevin Olison chipped in 17, but no other Penguin scored more than eight. YSU finished 26-of-70 from the field and shot 8-of-28 from 3-point range. That mark from downtown was perhaps inflated by YSU's last-minute rally, as at one point the Penguins were just 4-of-21.
Of Cohill's 25 points, 11 came in the game's final 38 seconds.
RMU also defended well inside, blocking seven of YSU's shots and altering plenty more.
"They mix (their defense) up. They play man, they play zone. We knew this," Calhoun said. "Nobody really changes this time of year. Everybody knows what everybody does -- it's about playing the game. You have to go play a good game. ... And we didn't make shots. I thought we got some shots, but I thought their rim protection bothered our shots around the rim. We're used to getting downhill and getting some easy layups, so you have to give (RMU) credit."
And as the shots continued to rim out, it took its toll, Calhoun noted.
"I don't think it wasn't that our guys weren't ready to play. When we didn't score, I think we let that affect our defense," he said.
Tuesday night was the first time this season Robert Morris had given up more than 70 points and come away with a victory. Previously, the Colonials were 0-20 when allowing 70-plus.
The Colonials' victory also breaks a series deadlock. Tuesday was the 25th meeting between YSU and RMU, and each team had won 12 games in that series coming into the matchup. It was the first Horizon League Tournament matchup between the two programs.
"Come tournament time, there's going to be a game or two here or there where somebody is going to go off and make shots, but it really comes down to your toughness level and your defense," Calhoun concluded. "We didn't do what we needed to do in those two areas."
jwhetzel@tribtoday.com