Robert Morris falls to Oakland despite 27 from Jones

Corey Petros, Travis Bader and Dante Williams each eclipsed the 20-point plateau as Oakland raced to a 100-94 victory over the Robert Morris University men's basketball team Sunday afternoon at the Athletic Center O'Rena in Rochester, Mich.

The Colonials slipped to 5-8 overall on the 2013-14 season in their opening contest of a five-game road swing, while the Grizzlies improved to 4-10.

Senior guard Karvel Anderson (Elkhart, Ind. / Glen Oaks Community College) opened scoring in the tilt with a fastbreak layup on a feed from senior guard Anthony Myers-Pate (Washington, D.C. / Charis Prep), but Oakland grabbed control in the early going behind the play of Petros.

At the 8:06 mark of the first half, the third dunk of the game by Petros gave the Grizzlies a 31-18 advantage, with Petros scoring 18 of Oakland's first 31 points.

Tommie McCune gave the Grizzlies their largest lead of the first half, 41-25, with 4:05 to go before the break thanks to a pair of free throws, but a 10-2 surge that featured eight straight points from junior guard Charles Oliver (Scotch Plains, N.J. / Lakeland Community College) pulled RMU to within 43-35 at the 2:12 mark of the first half.

Oakland weathered the surge and scored the final nine points of the stanza, including seven consecutive from Williams, to take a 52-35 advantage into halftime.

The Grizzlies kept the Colonials at bay in the second half, turning on the offensive engines each time Robert Morris started a run.

The largest lead of the contest for Oakland came with 13:37 to play, when Bader hit the back end of a pair of free throws to give the Grizzlies a 68-48 cushion.

RMU was able to chip away at its deficit thanks to the three-pointer, as freshman forward Jeremiah Worthem (Philadelphia, Pa. / Math, Civics & Sciences) converted from deep, Oliver hit a pair and junior forward Lucky Jones (Newark, N.J. / St. Anthony) added his own to pull the Colonials to within 78-67.

Bader helped snuff the Robert Morris rally thanks to a pair of three-pointers, but the Colonials had one last charge, closing to within 89-83 with 1:42 to go after Jones converted a pair of free throws.

Oakland sealed the victory at the charity stripe, however, going 11-for-14 at the chalk in the final 1:35.

Petros scored 26 points to lead the Grizzlies, going 10-for-14 from the field and 6-for-10 at the free-throw line. Bader added 24 points on the strength of a 7-for-12 performance from beyond the arc, while Williams scored 22 points off the bench.

For the third time in five games, Jones established a new career high in scoring, finishing 9-for-16 shooting from the floor, including 5-of-8 from deep, and hitting all four of his attempts the stripe for a game-high 27 points. He also paced RMU in rebounds with seven.

Jones was one of five players to score in double figures for Robert Morris, as Oliver added a career-high 18 points off the bench as the reserves scored a season-high 45 points for the Colonials.

In addition to Oliver's performance, Worthem scored 12 points off the bench, while freshman guard Kavon Stewart (Paterson, N.J. / Hudson Catholic) reached double figures for the first time in his career with 11 points while also dishing out a game-high nine assists. Senior forward Mike McFadden (Newark, N.J. / Technology) also scored 11 points for RMU.

Robert Morris now has over a week off before continuing its five-game road swing Monday, Dec. 30, with a 7:00 p.m. EST tilt at Oklahoma State.