Robert Morris men rally but come up short vs. St. Bonaventure

Robert Morris’ bid for a second signature road win in men’s basketball fell short Thursday night in Olean, N.Y., as St. Bonaventure held off the Colonials’ second-half challenge to pull away for a 75-61 victory at Reilly Center.

Double-doubles by Frank Mitchell and Cayden Charles powered the unbeaten Bonnies (5-0), who shot 44%, outrebounded RMU by 42-34 and blocked eight Colonials shots.

The 6-foot-8, 270-pound Mitchell finished with 19 points and 16 rebounds, and Charles contributed 12 points and 10 boards.

“We knew it would be a physical game,” Robert Morris coach Andy Toole said, “and it affected us. You’ve got to be ready to handle that.”

Darryl Simmons added 16 points, and Joe Grahovac chipped in 11 for St. Bonaventure.

Josh Hill led Robert Morris with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Nikolaos Chitikoudis added 13 points, and Ryan Prather Jr. finished with 11 for the Colonials, who remain on the road to play at Monmouth at 3 p.m. Sunday.

Hill, a 6-11 transfer from Arkansas State, came off the bench to shoot 8 for 14 in 24 minutes.

“It was nice to see him make some shots, and he did a nice job on the backboards,” Toole said. “Hopefully, we can continue to build on that with him. It was good to see him get going and contribute, offensively.”

Unlike its 81-79 overtime victory at Drake on Nov. 6, RMU (3-2) couldn’t come back against the Atlantic 10’s Bonnies after closing within 55-52 with 7 minutes, 49 seconds left on a pair of free throws by DeSean Goode.

St. Bonaventure went on an 11-2 run to go up 66-54 with 3:22 to go and finish with its fifth victory to open the season.

In the first meeting between the schools since the 2008-09 season, the game matched Toole, in his 16th season as RMU’s coach, against former RMU coach Mark Schmidt of St. Bonaventure, who led the Colonials from 2001-07 before taking over the Bonnies.

Robert Morris fell behind 12-0 at the start and played much of the first half without starting point guard Albert Vargas, who was in early foul trouble.

The Colonials came back within 33-28 on Cam Wilds’ 3-point shot with 2:04 left and trailed at intermission 37-33.

St. Bonaventure pushed the lead back to double digits at the 13:14 mark of the second half on a basket by Mitchell go up 51-40 before Robert Morris chipped away again and nearly caught up.

“I commend our effort. We played with some fight,” Toole said. “But we make the game so hard for ourselves. It’s already a hard game to play. We need to better grasp the importance of each possession. You have to be able to react at a high speed, and we’re just not there yet.”