What a win!! Colonials top the Mount in OT

[ColonialCrazy]

Marcquise Reed! What a shot by the freshman with 11 seconds left, that shot (and his 21 points) helped the Colonials make it in to overtime and the defense took over from there.

RMU shut out the Mount in OT, out scoring Mount St Mary's 4-0 in OT. Marcquise Reed led the team with 21, and Rodney pryor poured in 17 points. Some thoughts...

Marcquise Reed played one hell of a basketball game. His 21 points were big, and it's hard to put into words how big his last second shot in regulation really was. When a freshman hits that shot, over a 6-10 center with him right in his face, on the road in a tough environment, in front of his friends and family (his lone game in the state of Maryland) you know you have some type of special player. Another huge game from the NEC's best freshman.

Lucky Jones only scored three points tonight, but he was everywhere on the defensive end. Any coach would take Jones on their team for nights like this. He wasn't finding his shot, but still had a major impact on the game.

The Colonials shot it great tonight, 48 percent, 60 percent from three but turned it over 21 times. Kavon Stewart struggled, and was benched down the stretch.

Overall, great gritty road win. The type of win that can carry a team for awhile.

Much more to come.

 

[Chris Cappella]

This was one of those games that I call an "all caps" game because I get so excited I end up tweeting the end of the game in all caps and write half the game recap in all caps. What an exhilarating win...

-First and foremost, I'm no recruiting expert by any means, but you really have to question how a kid like Marcquise Reed falls through the cracks. He averaged over 31 points per game as a senior in high school, monster numbers no matter the competition. I couldn't do that playing middle schoolers.

Reed dropped a game-high 21 points on 6-14 shooting and a perfect 8-8 from the charity stripe, hardly a given in this game. No shot was bigger than his game-tying three with 11 seconds remaining. Freshman in the NEC should NOT be able to do that. At all. Reed brought the ball the whole way up the floor, got switched onto 6-11 center Kristijan Krajina, and still hit a step-back three over him. As Chris Shovlin perfectly said, Reed could have announced over the PA system he was taking that shot and still hit it. Complete filth.

-Perhaps even more impressive than reed was the defensive effort and overall mental fortitude the team showed. Mount St. Mary's last field goal made came with 4:06 to go in the second half and were shutout in overtime. RMU trailed by as many as seven in the second half. With the rate they were turning the ball over (21 times total), that game really could have gotten out of hand. Instead, the Colonials bounced back. That was an old school, tough, gritty road win this team desperately needed.

-How about the play of the seniors tonight? Lucky Jones had just three points but also played one of the more impressive defensive games I've ever seen. Whenever Mount St. Mary's went up for a key bucket, it was Jones defending the shot. The other senior, David Appolon, corralled several key rebounds and played big minutes in place of Kavon Stewart who just didn't have his A game tonight.

-Elijah Minnie returned from a two-game suspension and responded in a big way, gathering a team-high six rebounds and recording a monster block with 52 seconds left in overtime to keep RMU up two.

-As I mentioned earlier, RMU did have 21 turnovers in this game. In a way, that makes the win that much more impressive. Teams should not win, especially on the road, with 21 turnovers. Still, RMU has to clean that up. It appeared MSM's ball pressure really effected the Colonials. They couldn't do the basics of solid bounce passes or catching the ball.

-Big man minute breakdown: Aaron Tate 24, Elijah Minnie 21, Stephan Bennett 11, Andre Frederick 7.

-I highly doubt many of you listen to my radio show on RMU radio, but the biggest focus this week dealt with the mental side of the basketball game. In my opinion, Robert Morris is the most talented team in the NEC, but that doesn't make them the best team. This game and the upcoming one Saturday (at St. Francis Brooklyn), to me, had the potential to be the season-changing weekend. Going on the road, against rivals, in tough environments, would be a good test. More than anything, RMU needed to get over a mental hurdle. They've faced SFC and SFU and have lost really close games. This team needs some close road wins for late-game confidence. We saw that on Thursday.

Let's see if it continues.

--Chris Cappella
--@C_Cappella

 

[Original_RMC]

Originally posted by Chris Cappella:

-I highly doubt many of you listen to my radio show on RMU radio

Well tell us how to listen and call in. I would like to talk RMU sports. haha

 

[Chris Cappella]

No problem! My show is every Tuesday and Wednesday from 9-10 pm and Saturday from 9-11 am.

You can listen by going to RMUradio.com when that time comes. For those who may be on the go, you can listen through the TuneIn app and searching Robert Morris University.

--Chris

 

[wildelk2]

Late post on the game at the Mount. I was at the game and I saw: Everyone will be glad to know that MSM fans were their whiny, bitchy, cry-baby selves as usual. Every time we (RMU) breathed the fans were screaming for a call. And their rabid student section was 70-80 if they were lucky. The hot dogs were lousy and the soda was watered down so if you ever go to a game there fill up before.
Above and beyond that Knott Arena is a basketball palace. It seats 2500 and 1500 were there on Thursday night. It got loud when the Mount made a run in the 2nd half; the cry babies were feeling good before we came back. Getting back to the stadium, I was VERY impressed.
As far as the game, I was impressed with Rodney Pryor. While I understand Luck is the heart and soul and Reed is the "fresh blood" one gets the sense that Pryor is yet another Toole steal (see K.Anderson) who you say to yourself " How did we get this guy?".
Despite 21 turnovers we hit the big shot when we needed it and played crazy D. The Mount put up a "0" in over-time!

As this post is late, I know we beat St. Francis- Brooklyn and are in a tie for 1st place. Should be an awesome 2nd half of conference play!!!

Go Colonials!!! Eric

 

[ColonialCrazy]

Mount fans are the worst!