For Robert Morris, 'Losing was not an option ... We didn't want to let the city down'

With an 83-62 Horizon League quarterfinal win over Wright State on Thursday night, the Robert Morris men’s basketball team did something we haven’t seen recently in Pittsburgh sports.

They delivered.

At home.

In the postseason.

In fact, the Colonials were the last team to do that in March of 2020 when they won the NEC title at the UPMC Events Center to advance to an NCAA Tournament that never happened thanks to the coronavirus outbreak.

Since then, the Steelers have yet to win a playoff game in any venue. The Penguins have failed to advance beyond the first round, and the Pirates have been unable to finish above .500.

The Pitt and Duquesne basketball teams have advanced to the NCAA Tournament at neutral sites. But it’s been a while since a Pittsburgh crowd could celebrate an accomplishment like that on home soil.

The Colonials knew that fact entering Thursday’s game as they seized the spotlight of the local sports scene for at least one day.

“We didn’t want to let the city down,” guard Kam Woods said after the game. “That would’ve been the last game. And the crowd probably wouldn’t be like that again for a minute. The energy the crowd was bringing really gave us momentum. We didn’t want to lose. Losing was not an option.”

The task wasn’t as easy as the final score may suggest. RMU was down 18-8 coming out of the first half’s under-12 timeout. That’s when D.J. Smith capitalized on an extended possession full of offensive rebounds and extra touches. He drained a three-pointer.

Following a stop at the other end, Smith hit another three and picked up an assist as Horizon League Player of the Year Alvaro Folgueiras scored five consecutive points.

From down 10 to up 1 thanks to @AlvaroFolgue ! #HLMBB #GRIT pic.twitter.com/HE6TcYK0Kz

— RMU Basketball (@RMUMBasketball) March 7, 2025

The Colonials never trailed again.

“It goes back to the summer. We always harp on what we are going to do when adversity hits. The biggest thing we did was just stay together,” Smith said. “My teammates found me. They know I’ll knock it down when it is time. Credit to them. They find me in the moments.”

The Raiders made it close on a few occasions, though. The game was tied at 28-28 in the first half. A 17-point second-half margin was trimmed to 64-57.

Wright State was one of the five teams to beat RMU this season. But head coach Andy Toole said the team pulled on that past experience to balloon the lead back out to double digits as the second half moved along.

“That was our last loss (66-64 on Jan.2). We showed them some of those clips (for the scouting report),” head coach Andy Toole said. “We started our edit with three or four of those plays that lost us that game. So guys were locked in, and they were really engaged in our preparation.”

The Colonials closed with a strong finishing kick of 19-5 as the record crowd of 4,068 in Moon Township crescendoed with approval as rarely used Tanner O’Grady of Upper St. Clair came off the bench in the waining moments to bury a shot for the game’s final points.

????????????????????????????????! See you in Indy! #HLMBB #GRIT @ogradyt22 pic.twitter.com/18Mnz4iXjp

— RMU Basketball (@RMUMBasketball) March 7, 2025

“That was an awesome environment for college basketball,” Toole said. “Everybody was loud. Everybody was there early. We’d love for it to be like that all the time. It was awesome to have everybody come out and create an awesome home-court advantage. The students came out incredibly well and were loud all night. After the first five or six minutes, our performance mirrored the energy in the building.”

For Toole and his players, the win may ring hollow unless they finish the task at hand and claim the Horizon League crown with two more wins at Indianapolis’ Corteva Coliseum next week. RMU gets Oakland in the semifinals on Monday. If they win, they’ll play the winner of Youngstown State versus Cleveland State on Tuesday with a berth into an NCAA Tournament on the line.

However, for those in attendance Thursday night, the Colonials provided something different for Pittsburgh sports fans of late: a positive postseason result on home soil.

We’ll take it.