Robert Morris and Monmouth, a couple of old basketball acquaintances, got together for the first time in 12 years in a thrilling Sunday afternoon on the Jersey Shore.
The former Northeast Conference rivals worked overtime for an outcome that left Robert Morris with its second straight loss.
Stefanos Spartalis’ two free throws with 8 seconds left gave Monmouth the lead, and the Hawks survived a pair of Robert Morris misses with time winding down to come away with a 71-70 victory at OceanFirst Bank Center.
The Colonials (3-3), who held a 12-point lead in the first half, blew a five-point advantage in overtime while failing to score in the final 2 minutes after Darius Livingston’s eight straight points pushed Robert Morris in front 70-65.
“I thought we were going to win the game,” Robert Morris coach Andy Toole said on the RMU Athletics Gameday App broadcast.
And perhaps even before the overtime.
Robert Morris appeared to have had a chance to win in regulation, but a review overturned Ryan Prather Jr.’s apparent 3-point shot with 5 seconds remaining, and the game headed to OT tied at 60-60.
“I thought it was a 3, but I wasn’t looking at his feet and there was a bunch of traffic over there,” Toole said. “(The officials) did a good job of even checking it, seeing if there was an opportunity for it to be a 2 or 3. I didn’t even think that was coming into the equation, but it did.”
Spartalis tied Justin Ray with 18 points apiece to lead Monmouth (2-3), which won for the first time in 10 games in the series with Robert Morris. Jason Rivera-Torres added 16 points, and Cornelius Robinson III finished with 10 for the Hawks.
DeSean Goode led Robert Morris with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Darius Livingston also scored 17, and Nikolaos Chitikoudis and Prather added 12 points apiece.
The teams were conference rivals from 1985-2013, first in the ECAC Metro, which in 1988 became the Northeast. Monmouth left the NEC in 2013 to join the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference before moving to the Coastal Athletic Association in 2022, whereas Robert Morris joined the Horizon League in 2020.
“This was like a high-level Horizon League game, where every possession mattered,” Toole said. “You have to get stops, especially on the road. We fouled them. They were a plus-22 from the free-throw line (24 for 31), and we were 2 for 8. We can’t win that way.”
The overtime began with the teams exchanging baskets before Livingston scored five straight points to give Robert Morris a 67-62 lead with 2:52 left.
After Ray and Livingston exchanged 3-pointers for a 70-65 RMU lead, Monmouth closed the game on a 6-0 run, surviving missed shots by Livingston and Vargas, the latter’s bounding off the rim as time expired.
“The number of shots we missed is just nauseating,” Toole said. “I don’t know any other way to put it, but it’s so frustrating.”
Robert Morris shot 43% overall but was just 6 for 24 from 3-point range. Still, the Colonials were in position for a victory but couldn’t hold their lead.
“You have to be able to get stops,” Toole said. “You’re up five, there’s a little less than 2 minutes, shot clock’s winding down. The first possession in overtime, we gave up with 4 seconds on the shot clock, straight line-drive layup. The second a stare-you-down 3-ball. Those are plays you can’t give up if you’re going to try to win the game.”
Robert Morris begins a three-game homestand at UPMC Events Center at 2 p.m. Wednesday against Illinois-Chicago followed by two games in the Urban-Bennett Invitational, where the Colonials will face Southern Utah on Friday and Stetson on Sunday, both at 2 p.m.
