Green Bay’s winning ways were halted at one game, as the Phoenix were unable to upset the red hot Robert Morris Colonials on Friday night. The 94-85 loss kicks off Green Bay’s final regular season road trip.
Yonatan Levy returned to the Phoenix lineup after missing last weekend’s games with a concussion. Both teams were scoring at a frantic pace early on as Alvaro Folgueiras hit a layup on the opening possession of the game. A career night for Green Bay sophomore Marcus Hall started with him splashing a 3 pointer to get the Phoenix on the board, giving Green Bat an early lead. The Colonials responded fast, as Josh Omojafo scored on back to back possessions for RMU to grab the lead back. Preston Ruedinger sparked the next scoring for the Phoenix, first assisting Levy for a hoop, then hitting a triple of his own. Robert Morris was able to keep control of the lead answering each Green Bag score, with a 3 from Amarion Dickerson, and a layup from DJ Smith.
Coming out of the first media break of the evening, Hall got a second chance score to go, only for Dickerson to score quickly after. Ben Tweedy looked to keep his scoring momentum going after his career day in the win over Wright State, hitting a jumper for his score of the day. CJ O’Hara gave Green Bay the lead after he was fouled and made both of his free throws, putting the Phoenix out in front 14-13. That lead would be short lived, as the advantage changed hands several times over the next few possessions. It would be the Colonials though who would grab the momentum, with made 3s by Folgueiras and Smith building the lead up to 7 points at the under 8 break.
The lead would stay near this mark for most of the remaining half. In the final minute of the opening frame, Green Bay did spark a rally with O’Hara getting layup followed by a Hall 3, cutting the Colonial lead to 40-37. It seemed like this was going to be the halftime score, but Folgueiras was able to beat the buzzer with a dunk, giving Robert Morris a 42-37 lead to go into halftime.
Tweedy scored on Green Bay’s opening possession of the second half to cut the lead back to 3, but Robert Morris had other plans. Despite a couple scores by O’Hara, the Colonials were able to put the pedal down to build a double digit advantage. The RMU lead got as high as 18 before Jeremiah Johnson earned a trip to the free throw line, hitting both. The Phoenix battled to try to reel the deficit in, but each score was met with an answer from the Colonials. Hall caught fire from deep late in the game, hitting three 3s in a row to finally get the RMU lead back to an even 10 points. A Levy layup moments later cut the deficit to single digits but due to Colonial free throws, it wouldn’t get any closer as Green Bay’s rally ran out of time.
Green Bay got career high scoring efforts from Hall who had 29, and O’Hara with 12 points. Jeremiah Johnson also finished in double digits, scoring 17 points in the defeat. Kam Woods and Dickerson each dropped 22 to pace RMU.
The Phoenix continue the final road trip of the regular season, with a grudge match against Youngstown State slated for Sunday. Green Bay and the ‘Guins will tip off at 1pm CT.
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