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Robert Morris pulls ahead early on, wins 87-75 against Quinnipiac
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College basketball is a game of runs, with things often finding a way of evening out. Often times, one team will go on a scoring burst and take what seems like a commanding lead only to see its opponent work its way back into the game with a run of its own.
For the Robert Morris men's basketball team Saturday night, all it took was one early run to effectively seize control of its game.
The Colonials went on a 25-8 run early in the first half, a scoring streak that ultimately proved to be the difference, as they defeated Quinnipiac 87-75 at the Charles L. Sewall Center.
A separate 16-6 run to open the second half helped pad what was already a comfortable halftime lead for the Colonials (12-7, 4-2 Northeast Conference). Once Robert Morris' aforementioned first-half run ended, the Bobcats (6-12, 2-4) were not able to cut the deficit to any lower than nine points for the remainder of the game.
Forward Russell Johnson led the way for the Colonials with a season-high 22 points, his highest scoring total since he notched 22 points against LIU Brooklyn on March 9, 2011.
Guards Velton Jones and Karvel Anderson, the team's two leading scorers, were back after sitting out the previous game with injuries. Jones had 14 points, while Anderson added nine.
Jones went down after a collision going for a rebound late in the first half and had to be helped off the court, but he returned to play a majority of the second half.
Perhaps most significantly, the game showed further signs of progress from forward Lucky Jones, who scored 18 points. Since being forced to sit out of Robert Morris' January 10 game at Fairleigh Dickinson, Jones has averaged 17 points per game.
Quinnipiac shot the ball well for the game, but -- both in Robert Morris' runs and throughout the game -- it struggled with turnovers. For the game, it turned the ball over 17 times, with the Colonials often going the other way to get points off of those miscues.
The win was the fourth in a row for Robert Morris, a successful stretch that has come immediately on the heels of a season-high three-game losing streak.
First Published January 19, 2013 9:18 pm
