Cleveland crowd embraces Robert Morris in thrilling 1st round battle with Alabama

CLEVELAND — Robert Morris led for just 30 seconds of its 90-81 loss against No. 2 Alabama in the NCAA Tournament on Friday afternoon, but the Colonials grabbed the attention of the college basketball world for two hours during a thrilling East Region first-round matchup.

That was especially the case inside Cleveland’s Rocket Arena, where many of the 15,000-plus in attendance were chanting, “Let’s go, Bobby Mo,” jumping on the bandwagon of the Horizon League champion mid-major looking to upset one of the top teams in the country.

“It definitely felt like we was back at Bobby Mo. (The crowd was) just awesome,” said RMU junior guard/forward Amarion Dickerson, a Cleveland native who had a game-high 25 points. “Just kind of mad that we didn’t come out with the W.”

The 15th-seeded Colonials stayed close for the duration, taking a 65-64 lead on Josh Omojafo’s layup with just over 7 minutes left and bringing the crowd to its feet.

But Alabama’s size and athleticism proved too much in the final minutes, as All-American point guard Mark Sears and the Crimson Tide iced the victory at the free throw line. Sears, who had just three first-half points, finished with 22, including 10 free throws in the second half.

It was a bittersweet ending to the season for Robert Morris (26-9), which won 10 consecutive games and brought “Bobby Mo” back into the national spotlight.

“It was an amazing feeling (to) play out there,” RMU sophomore forward Alvaro Folgueiras said of the thousands of fans decked out in RMU blue and red. “Sadly, we didn’t give them the win, but we finished the season with the head up, like men, like we’ve been playing all season long, and now all the country knows that we have (a) high-major pride team.”