For the second consecutive week, Robert Morris has swept the Horizon League men’s basketball awards.

Last week, it was DeSean Goode earning player of the week. Ryan Prather Jr. picked up the honor this week. For Darius Livingston, make it two straight freshman of the week awards.

That’s nice, Robert Morris coach Andy Toole reasoned, but personal accolades don’t win games.

It’s qualities such as toughness, momentum, focus — all the usual aspects — that do.

“You want to be playing meaningful games this time of year,” Toole said.

With the start of the Horizon League Tournament just more than a week away, it doesn’t get much more important than the defending-champion Colonials’ Sunday matinee matchup with league-leading Wright State in a nationally televised game at Nutter Center in Fairborn, Ohio.

“Absolutely,” Toole said. “We’ve been talking all year long about the importance of each and every day. It becomes magnified when you approach mid-February and as you’re winding down to March.

“How quickly time goes by, how fleeting.”

Robert Morris (18-10, 10-7), with three regular-season games remaining, was looking to extend a four-game winning streak and complete a season sweep of Wright State (18-10, 13-4). The Raiders entered the day 2 1/2 games ahead of second-place Green Bay and three games in front of RMU, Detroit Mercy and Oakland.

Prather (15.6 ppg) was leading Robert Morris and ranked seventh in the Horizon in scoring, while Goode (8.8 rpg) and Nikolaos Chitikoudis (7.6) were 1-2 in the conference in rebounding.

Wright State on Thursday secured a home game for the start of the Horizon League Tournament with an 85-73 victory over last-place IU Indianapolis and has two regular-season games left.

Michael Cooper (13.3 ppg) was leading the Raiders in scoring and Michael Imariagbe (6.7 rpg) was on top in rebounding.

With time winding down, Robert Morris is attempting to improve its first-round seeding, and the Colonials kept rolling last Sunday in a dominating 93-69 victory against Oakland at UPMC Events Center.

“To some extent, we’re still trying to figure out how to push their buttons,” Toole said of his players, all but one (Prather) playing in their first season with the Colonials, who lost their entire starting lineup from last season through the NCAA transfer portal.

The Horizon Tournament’s first-round games are set to get underway March 4 following a play-in game March 2 between the Nos. 10 and 11 seeds to determine the 10-team field.

Toole, the reigning Horizon Coach of the Year, knows what to expect when that hectic time arrives.

“The only thing last year did for this group was put a big target on their back and raise the expectation,” Toole said. “That’s no fault of this year’s group. We’re trying to prepare them for what those expectations are because they still don’t know what that looks like.”

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