They fell to 15-9 overall and 10-3 in the HL after a 72-66 defeat Wednesday. Second-place Oakland lost at Cleveland State and dropped to 10-4.
“Robert Morris was sure ready to play. That’s where you’ve got to start. Give them a ton of credit. I thought they were physical. They physically hit us in the mouth in the first half,” coach Clint Sargent said on his post-game radio show.
“We’re used to doing that to other teams. When it’s done to you, it takes you back.”
Trailing by 15 in the first half and 13 at halftime, the Raiders took a 61-57 lead with a 7-0 surge, capped by Michael Imariagbe’s short jumper with 6:18 to go.
The game was tied at 63-all with under three minutes to go.
After two empty possessions by Wright State, Nikolaos Chitkoudis made a pair of free throws at 2:06 to give Robert Morris a 65-63 edge.
He also blocked a shot by Imariagbe, and DeSean Goode made a 3 for a 68-63 lead with 1:16 left.
The Raiders scored only three points on their final seven possessions.
Their streak of consecutive league road wins ended at five, tying the 2023-24, 2007-08 and 2003-04 teams.
“I thought it took us too long to respond. The response was great, very proud of that. But the last four minutes, execution-wise, we weren’t very sharp. We had some haywire possessions,” Sargent said.
The Raiders made only 23 of 65 shots (35.4%) and went 5 of 20 from 3.
The Colonials started 16 of 27 from the field and finished 28 of 58 (48.3%), going 9 of 20 from 3. They improved to 15-10 overall and 7-7 in the league.
Imariagbe had 16 points and 13 rebounds. Solomon Callaghan and TJ Burch had 14 points each, while Kellen Pickett grabbed 11 rebounds.
“I said to the players after the game, we have to suffer well for, like, an hour, and learn from it. Take everything that’s here for us — because we should’ve won this game, just like we should’ve beat Cleveland State,” Sargent said.
Just as the Raiders had to rebuild after their top four scorers from last year transferred, the Colonials had a major reconstruction project on their hands, too.
They won the league regular-season and tourney crowns and played in the NCAA tourney, but all five starters put their names in the portal.
HL player of the year Alvaro Folgueiras went to Iowa, and defensive POY Amarion Dickerson and second-team all-league pick Kam Woods went to Southern Cal.
Josh Omojafo ended up at South Florida, and DJ Smith went to Campbell.
Next game
Who: Purdue Fort Wayne at Wright State
When: 7 p.m. Saturday
Streaming: ESPNU
Radio: 1410-AM, 101.5-FM
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