RMU Surge Past Pitt-Greensburg After Tight First Half

MOON TOWNSHIP – Robert Morris Colonials (3-1) welcomed Pitt-Greensburg Bobcats (2-1) for the second time in program history and broke away in the second half to produce an 81-57 result. In its last DII game of the season, the Colonials may have started off feeling a smidge too comfortable after their most recent matchup against Geneva, where they held a hard-fought score.

This was only the second meeting between the two teams, RMU won the first 84-49 on Nov. 9, 2022 also at home where three Colonials reached double figures. This time, the final margin was similar, but four Colonials posted double-digit points. Cyril Arvanitis is the last remaining Colonial who played in that 2022 game.

Feisty Pitt-Greensburg came in flying and gave Robert Morris all it could handle; the only thing that seemed to hurt them for the first half was its turnovers, which is expected given RMU’s ongoing strong defense. Pitt-Greensburg started off scoreless for about three minutes but quickly picked it up and fell into a groove, taking its first lead in the eleventh minute. The two teams remained locked for most of the half, and it ended with the Colonials leading 35-29.

RMU, still struggling with three-pointers, took some they didn’t need, much to head coach Andy Toole’s frustration. The Colonials committed nine turnovers in the first half, compared with just nine for the entire game against Geneva. RMU shot just 3-of-19 from beyond the arc, while Pitt-Greensburg finished 6-of-22.

With the Colonials forcing shots from deep and struggling to find rhythm, it highlighted the ongoing balance between hunting for “pretty” looks and simply putting points on the board.

“We try to define it as what we call an RMU shot,” Toole said. “One of that you’re Ready, one we Make at a high percentage, and hopefully it is Uncontested. So if that happens five seconds or 20 seconds into the shot clock, that should be a good look. I think we’ve got to just continue to understand the balance of that and going into the game today, we really talked about giving up some good shots for great shots, and in the first half we didn’t do that. It seemed like everybody was trying to get their shot versus our shot.”

The second half saw the Colonials take control, reaching a double-digit lead just four minutes in, then doubled it to a twenty-point advantage 11 minutes into the frame. Despite a tight opening half, RMU seemed to flip a switch while Pitt-Greensburg started to run out of gas and lose its ability to keep up.

“We picked up our defensive urgencies; in the first half we stared at a couple of guys as they rose up to shoot jump shots. And to me, that’s never acceptable,” Toole said. “In the second half, I thought we did a much better job of wearing them down.”

Goode and Chitikoudis got consistent touches on their trips down the court, emerging as some of the brightest spots for the red and blue. Chitikoudis poured in 19 points while Goode added 13. Similar to the Geneva matchup, four Colonials reached double-digit points, Prather and Livingston with ten a piece.

Chitikoudis found a near-perfect stretch and ultimately finished 9-of-11 from the floor, closing out a dominant 19-point, 10-rebound performance. Goode added his own efficiency, reinforcing why he projects as one of the top field-goal percentage shooters in the Horizon League as a steady, reliable finisher.

Next up, the boys make a trip to New York for a matchup at St. Bonaventure on Thursday, Nov. 20, before heading to New Jersey to face Monmouth on Nov. 23.