In what was a banner season for the Roadrunners, the men’s basketball team fell short in the second round of the NCAA Division III tournament to the University of Mary Washington (UMW). Saturday’s loss marks the end of the line for Ramapo legends Peter Gorman, Justin Bladen, Anthony Corbo, Shane Rooney and Jordan Myers.
The weekend tournament began with what was one of the greatest wins in Roadrunner history after defeating Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in double overtime. Gorman and Bladen played all 50 minutes in the physical effort, while Myers saved perhaps the best game of his career for his final run.
The Stags entered Friday evening’s game with the monstrous advantage of 6-foot-9 AJ Rohosy manning the middle of the paint. Rohosy, who transferred to Claremont after playing two years of Division I basketball for Washington State, was graded as the most efficient player in DIII in the PER metric.
In the first half, the Roadrunners did a better-than-expected job containing Rohosy, limiting him to just four points. Ramapo was throwing a mix of coverages on the graduate student, sending Myers, Rooney, Tim Linton and Branden Moore in a variety of packages, forcing Rohosy to dish to Will Householter for the scoring load.
Ramapo found themselves down by as many as eight points in the first half, struggling to score on a Stags defense that led their conference in points allowed per game. That was, until a 12-3 run in the final 3:28 of the half that put the Roadrunners up by two at the break. The run was headed by Gorman, Bladen and Moore forcing turnovers and taking full advantage of the raucous Bradley Center crowd.
In the second half, neither the Stags nor the Roadrunners found themselves with more than a two-score advantage, seeing the two teams trade basket after basket. A pair of free throws from Myers put Ramapo up 60-59 with under 90 seconds to play, and on their final possession of regulation, a foul by Myers sent Matt Meredith to the line with a chance to win the game.
With the Bradley Center louder than it has been all season, the 76% shooter Meredith made just one of two shots, sending the game to regulation tied at 60. Trouble was brewing for both teams, however, as multiple players on each squad found themselves just one foul away from leaving the game.
On the first possession of overtime, Gorman nailed a 30-foot three pointer that gave Ramapo their largest lead since early in the second half. Caelen Jones responded immediately for the Stags with a deep three of his own, echoing the chaos of regulation. The two teams exchanged free throws for the duration of the period and, after a Householter jumper tied the game at 73 with 1:06 to go, neither team could muster up another bucket, sending the game to a second overtime period.
By this time, both Meredith and Rooney had fouled out, leading the two teams to go deeper into their bench rotation than planned. After some more exchanging of baskets, a run by Myers and Moore gave the Roadrunners the first two-possession lead of either overtime period, and Ramapo never let it up. Despite losing Linton and Myers later in the period due to fouls, the Roadrunners held strong for the 89-84 win.
Gorman and Myers combined to score 48 points, while Bladen and Rooney combined to force eight turnovers. Despite allowing 22 offensive rebounds, 14 of which by Rohosy, Ramapo only allowed nine second-chance-points in the final 30 minutes of action. Despite being guarded by Rohosy, Myers shot an efficient six-of-eight from the field including going 11/14 on free throws.
The win gave the Roadrunners a date with UMW on Saturday night, where the fatigue of Friday’s game was evident. Ramapo was never able to take a lead, though they were able to keep the game relatively close for all 40 minutes, including cutting the Eagles’ lead to two late in the second half. However, any time Ramapo tried to go on a run, UMW had the answer.
Ramapo fell 86-81 in their final game of the 2024-25 season, finalizing their record at 21-8, their most wins in a season since 2018. Coach Chuck McBreen will now enter a rebuilding phase built around Linton, Moore, freshman Logan Smith and any incoming freshman. As for Gorman, next up for the guard is a trip to Ramapo’s Hall of Fame.
wjackso2@ramapo.edu
Featured photo courtesy of Ramapo Athletics
