Moon Township, Pa. - The list of accomplishments by the Robert Morris University Colonials over the past five-plus highly successful seasons - Northeast Conference championships, postseason tournament appearances, individual awards, what have you - picked up another line item last Saturday evening.

With their 91-69 victory against Duquesne at the Charles L. Sewall Center, these Colonials became the first RMU basketball team to defeat the Dukes in three consecutive seasons.

"It means a lot,'' RMU senior point guard Velton Jones said. "It's a good feeling. Duquesne is a rival school, and for me to be able to beat them three times out of my four years is an accomplishment I can be proud of when I get older.''

The win against Duquesne followed by two weeks an 84-76 victory over Ohio University at the Sewall Center - the Colonials' fourth in four seasons against the Bobcats.

That begs the question - which is more impressive? Three consecutive victories against rival Duquesne or four consecutive wins against Mid-American Conference toughie Ohio University?

"Good question,'' Toole said. "I would say that because of what Ohio University has done in the postseason it might get a little bit more notoriety in places other than Western Pennsylvania. But I think here in Western Pennsylvania it's a great accomplishment for us to beat Duquesne three years in a row.''

Jones was quite clear with his answer to the question.

"Duquesne,'' he said. "They're a rival and we're all right here. I think it's bigger to beat Duquesne, for sure.''

Jones led the Colonials with 22 points and six assists. That after scoring only 31 points in his previous four games. In those four games, he was 5-for-31 from the field, including 2-of-11 from beyond the arc. Against the Dukes, Jones made 6-of-10 field goal attempts, including 4-for-6 from international waters.

"I just felt the rhythm,'' Jones said. "I put in a lot, and I mean a lot, of extra work this week. I just felt good coming into the game and I made my first couple of shots. I had some open looks. My teammates got me open, and I was able to knock them down.''

Jones was superb in the opening seconds of a blitz RMU staged to begin the second half during which the Colonials outscored Duquesne, 21-5, in just over four minutes.

He assisted on a basket by Mike McFadden. He knocked down a trey. He had another assist on a dunk by McFadden. Then he drained another shot from beyond the arc. Finally, he assisted on a jumper by Karvel Anderson.

"(Velton) is a great player,'' said Duquesne coach Jim Ferry, who coached against the Colonials when he was the head coach at LIU-Brooklyn prior to getting the Dukes' job last April. "He can do that anywhere. He can do it at Robert Morris. He can do it in the Big East. He can do it anywhere. He's a great player. He is the head of that monster, and good for him. He's a fantastic point guard.''

The Colonials were so hot to begin the second half - they made their first eight field goal attempts - that they literally shot the lights out.

With just under five minutes gone in the second half, a row of lights in the ceiling went out, causing a brief stoppage of play.

"We were definitely getting open looks, and we made them,'' Jones said. "We focused on getting open shots, and we did. And we did shoot the lights out.''

The Colonials shot the lights out at the end of the court that fronts the 1921 Club, a recent addition to the atmosphere at the Sewall Center.

"You see the 1921 Club down there,'' Toole said. "I immediately put my two cents in about getting a new building as soon as the lights went out. Hopefully they had some big donors down there in the 1921 Club.''

Toole could understand the "shooting the lights out'' thing when asked by reporters.

"If it helps with your stories,'' he said with a chuckle, "yes, I thought we were shooting the lights out.''

That lights-out offensive display by the Colonials unquestionably turned the game.

"It sunk their confidence and we just gained more confidence,'' RMU's Lucky Jones said.

"We started to feel good and then, you know, once you start to kind of build that lead the rim looks bigger and bigger,'' Toole said.

The Colonials shot 65.6 percent (21-of-32) from the field in the second half, including 64.3 percent (9-of- 14) from deep.

"They started the second half with a sense of urgency,'' Ferry said. "I'll be quite honest - I've been doing this for a long time and I don't think I've seen a second half shooting display like they had. You have to give them credit. As much as we broke down (defensively), they made those shots.''

Robert Morris outscored the young Dukes, 60-39, in the second half.

"It was an incredible second half effort by us,'' Toole said. "At halftime we talked about not relaxing in the second half. We talked about for the final 20 minutes making sure we were back (defensively) every single time, sprinting back, playing with all-out effort. And I thought we really did that. Obviously, it helped that we scored as many points in the second half as we usually do in an entire game. I think it was a product of us taking high percentage shots and really moving the basketball. It was an incredible effort defensively as well as an incredibly unselfish effort offensively.''

Duquesne began the game by controlling the tempo and led, 20-16, about 11 minutes in.

Thereafter?

"I thought we played hard for the first 10 minutes,'' Ferry said, "and I thought Robert Morris just absolutely dominated this basketball game for the next 30 minutes. They're just a better team than we are right now. That's a seasoned, veteran, winning program that outplayed us tonight. They deserve all the credit.''

In the end, Robert Morris had 19 steals. Duquesne had 25 turnovers. The Colonials turned those 25 into 31 points.

"This game came down to turnovers -- which is very, very obvious,' Ferry said. "We talked about it. We worked on it for three days. The biggest key for us was to not turn the ball over against this team. They guarded us well. It's simple. I don't think I've ever seen 31 points off turnovers. Robert Morris feeds off (getting turnovers). I thought they played well defensively. I thought a lot of it was our inexperience. And then it snowballed. They set the tone. They guarded us. We just didn't handle it the right way, which led to turnovers.''

In the aftermath, Ferry was asked to compare this season's Colonials with last season's Colonials.

"I think they have more shooting,'' he said. "It's not just Coron Williams. You have to worry about Karvel (Anderson) now, too. Now you're chasing the shooters, and what does that do? It opens up the floor for Velton Jones. They're not as deep in the front court.''

That's because senior center Lijah Thompson is out for the season with a knee injury.

"I just think they're another year older,'' Ferry continued. "You talk about a program that's been in the (NEC) championship game four years in a row. They have a chance to be there again. I just think they have a little bit more shooting, a little bit more experience. You know, they're tight defensively. You're going to have a hard time beating that team in this gym.''

DONE WELL BY TREADWELL: Highly popular four-year walk-on Treadwell Lewis and newcomer Vaughn Morgan put an exclamation point on the Colonials' victory with a feed-and-slam play with 29 seconds left Saturday night.

Lewis was in the lane and slipped a pass to Morgan, who slammed in the Colonials' final two points.

The Colonials on the bench stood, smiled and reacted demonstratively to what some observers - well, at least this one - thought might have been the play of the game.

"Aw, man, it's about time (Morgan) got a dunk,'' Velton Jones said. "We were so hyped up. He can jump so high, but he never (dunks). It was an exciting play for us.''

But what about Lewis' pass?

"It was a very good pass by Treadwell - a very good pass,'' Jones said. "We thought he was going to shoot. We were surprised he passed. But it was a great pass by him and a great finish by Vaughn.''

NEC EXITS: Late last week, Monmouth and Quinnipiac left the Northeast Conference for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, effective next season.

"Any time a conference loses a couple of good members, it's disappointing,'' said RMU Director of Athletics Craig Coleman, M.D. "When you consider the environment, I believe that we are the 35th conference in the country that's now been affected by realignment, so it's the way it is in college athletics right now. But we're a good, strong conference. We have 10 great schools in our conference still and we're going to move forward with the nine other schools and ourselves, and we're happy to be in the Northeast Conference.''

The moves by Monmouth and Quinnipiac, which aren't great surprises, don't have Coleman thinking about Robert Morris making a similar move.

"We're committed to the Northeast Conference,'' he said. "We've very happy here.''

Could the NEC seek to add a school or two to replace Monmouth and/or Quinnipiac?

"I think that may be something that the league considers at some future point,'' Coleman said, "but I don't think we're at a point in our league where, 'Gee, we only have 10 schools.' There are a lot of leagues that wish they had 10 schools. I think if there were a school out there that would bring added quality to our league, sure, I think that's something we would consider as a league, but I don't think there's any urgency to do something like that.''

NEXT UP: The Colonials will put a wrap on their non-conference schedule this week with games at Louisiana-Lafayette (4-7) Tuesday night and Arkansas (5-4) Thursday night, then take a holiday break before beginning NEC play Jan. 3 against Bryant at the Sewall Center.

Louisiana-Lafayette is 3-1 at home. The Ragin' Cajuns, who have only one senior on their roster, average 69.2 points per game and allow 72.2 points per game. They're led in scoring by redshirt freshman guard Shawn Long (17.1 ppg). Other double figure scorers are sophomore guard Elfrid Payton (13.2) and junior forward Bryant Mbamalu (10.9).

Arkansas has lost four of six games since opening the season with three wins.