A lot to digest in this one. As I mentioned at halftime, RMU certainly came to play, played with intensity, while YSU either thought they could cake walk though this game or seemed tired. YSU never played with any sense of urgency until the end. Somehow YSU out-rebounded RMU by 1, but it sure didn't feel like it. RMU seemed to get every loose ball, every 50-50 ball, and the rebounds that counted.
It's hard to believe that 5 days YSU controlled their own destiny at a top 4 seed and had a shot at the #2 seed now they're done after being beaten by RMU for the 2nd time at home. RMU plays hard and is probably better than their record, but that was just their 8th win. They only won 5 other D1 games and one of those was St. Francis.
YSU has struggled all year against the zone and when they're not making shots like tonight it really compounds things. Then Akuchie, Cohill, and Olison were trying to force things inside with no luck.
As I mentioned above, YSU has not played well since the first half in the IUPUI game. They were out-played by IUPUI in the 2nd half allowing them to make a game of it, were beat from start-to-finish and basically weren't competitive when they needed it most against WSU & NKU and that continued tonight for much of tonight. On the other side, YSU has been dominated inside. Maybe Owens and the RMU transfer they got can give YSU some size inside next year.
Such a shame too to have that great of a crowd and not reward the fans with a good performance. I'd say half the crowd or more left with 6 mins to go when coach took out the first team. Give the guys credit for coming off the bench and at least giving the team a spark. It was actually too bad Long missed the front end of the 1 & 1 and then Olison had that turnover late when he tried to pass the ball rather than just going up with an open shot because Cohill nearly singlehandedly brought YSU back scoring 11 points in the last 38 seconds.
