Moon Township, Pa. – The Robert Morris Colonials have their chance to make history tonight.
They're a 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and they play Duke, a one seed, in the second round of the South Region in Charlotte, N.C.
As you're well aware, no 16 seed has defeated a one seed in this often mad-cap event.
You're no doubt also aware that everybody talks about how it's inevitable that sometime in some year it will happen.
Is this year some year?
Well, as former major league pitcher Joaquin Andujar said: "Youneverknow.''
So you can take Andujar's "word'' for it.
There are also the words of Colonial senior
Lucky Jones when he was asked Wednesday night about Robert Morris having to play Duke next.
"I like our chances very well,'' Jones said. "At the end of the day, it's a team game, no matter who they have on their team, no matter how many TV games they have. I love Robert Morris. Our coaches put in a lot of work. They know the scouting report. They make sure we know the plays inside out and we know (the opponent's) tendencies. So we just have to go out there and believe in ourselves, have confidence, have fun and see what happens.''
There's also this that might work in the Colonials' favor, they've defeated the Blue Devils twice this season.
Granted, it was the Central Connecticut State Blue Devils of the Northeast Conference. But the fact is, the Colonials
are 2-0 against Blue Devils this season.
Just sayin'.
None of that means much as the Colonials (20-14) prepare for Duke (29-4), but this Robert Morris team does know it can win in the NCAA Tournament.
That's just what it did Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio, when it came from behind to knock off the University of North Florida, 81-77, at the University of Dayton Arena.
Achieving that victory took some doing.
For a while, it appeared the game would be just a day at the Beech for North Florida.
Junior Beau Beech made five three-pointers in the game's first 21 minutes en route to a game-high 28 points for the Ospreys.
Or perhaps we should call them the "Os-treys.''
North Florida made eight of its first 13 casts from international waters and constructed a 44-31 lead less than two minutes into the second half.
It was time for the Colonials either to get going or go home.
They got going -- and then some.
Led by their talented trio of
Marcquise Reed,
Lucky Jones and
Rodney Pryor, the Colonials swooped on the Ospreys and outscored them, 50-33, the rest of the way to earn their date with Duke.
"I'm extremely proud of our team and the way we competed in the second half,'' RMU coach
Andrew Toole said. "I thought we were a little uncharacteristic in the first half in terms of ball movement, executing offense and kind of staying true to who we were defensively.''
In the first half, North Florida shot 58.3 percent from the field. Robert Morris made only 36.4 percent of its 33 shots. The result was a 35-29 North Florida halftime lead.
"At halftime, we let (the players) be for about five or six minutes,'' Toole said. "When (the coaches) came in to the locker room, (the players) looked like they understood what they needed to do in the second half.''
"We knew we didn't play our best basketball,'' Jones said. "We had to take it stop by stop and get the best shot for our team. We had to stay together and just go out there and have fun. I think we did that to the best of our abilities.''
Indeed.
Reed, Jones and Pryor scored 41 of the Colonials' 52 second-half points.
"We had to remember this is a blessing to be out here, so we have to enjoy it,'' Pryor said. "Guys had their heads down and things like that (at halftime), but we just talked about going out and having fun and enjoying it.''
Reed, the NEC Rookie of the Year, had a rough first half. He hit just two of his seven shots. But he scored 15 of his 19 points in the second half, finally showing his ability to make his reliable mid-range jump shots and convert his athletic drives to the basket.
"My teammates helped me,'' Reed said. "They just kept talking to me throughout the game, kept motivating me, saying, 'We need you to score so we can win this game. So pick your head up and just continue to play your game. We're going to be fine.' And that's exactly what I did.''
Jones scored 14 of his 21 points in the second half. In the process, he raised his career total to 1,625 points. That moved him past Chaz McCrommon (1,623) and into fourth place on RMU's all-time scoring list.
Pryor scored 12 of his 20 points after intermission. Those 12 included a three-pointer with 6:44 left that gave the Colonials a 64-60 lead and began to turn the game in their favor.
"It's hard to guard all three of them,'' Toole said. "I thought in the first half those three guys along with everybody else that touched the ball were trying to make a play for themselves. We had no flow offensively. We weren't moving the ball. We were going one pass, jump shot. At halftime we talked about sharing the ball, playing together. I thought guys played unselfishly. I thought guys executed offense. I thought they had a nice flow of when to take advantage of a break situation and when to step it out to run offense. When you do that, when you have good players who work together, you end up shooting a high percentage, and we did in the second half.''
The Colonials shot 62 percent inside the arc in the second half.
That helped them capitalize on switching from their zone defense to a man-to-man at times in the second half. The Ospreys shot just 39.3 percent from the field in the final 20 minutes. North Florida made only two field goals in the final 9:48, and none in the last five and-a-half minutes.
"We knew we were going to have to mix it up (defensively) a little bit,'' Toole said. "They're an excellent offensive team. They're hard to keep down. We had to try to change the tempo of the game, and I thought we did. I thought we did a good job of forcing them off the three-point line and making them shoot tough twos. That's what we did in the second half, and that was very effective.''
The Colonials also continued to be opportunistic on defense. The Ospreys had a season-high 19 turnovers, including 12 Colonial steals, and Robert Morris turned those into 21 points.
"I would never discredit what Robert Morris did,'' Osprey coach Matthew Driscoll said, "but I will say (that) our turnovers were self-inflicted at some points. When you self-inflict and you allow them to get out and run, it's very, very difficult to get those key stops that you need. You have to give Robert Morris a ton of credit for turning those (turnovers) into 21 points, which was the difference in the game.''
After falling behind by that 44-31 score, the Colonials quickly got back into the game. Five minutes later, they trailed by just a point at 46-45. North Florida did regroup and expand its lead to 59-51 with 9:48 remaining, but three-pointers by Pryor and Jones once again put RMU within one, 60-59.
"I thought those two buckets were critical,'' Driscoll said.
"Usually when one of us hits shots like that, it motivates the other person to get going,'' Reed said. "So when Rodney hit the shot that motivated Lucky to hit his next shot or that motivated me. When somebody steps up and hits a big shot like that, it gives us so much momentum going forward.''
A Reed jumper with 1:19 left sent the Colonials out to a 75-68 lead, and Jones reacted emotionally after the Colonials forced a team turnover with a shot-clock violation. He let out a loud roar.
"I felt the game had turned into our hands,'' he said. "We had been struggling the whole first half. Really weren't playing together. Really didn't have the great body language. But I felt we'd really turned around the game. I felt it and I was just proud. I let out all my anger and emotion and everything else that I had inside my body.''
The Colonials made just enough free throws thereafter to keep the Ospreys at bay and wrap up their second NCAA Tournament win and first since 1983.
While Jones, Pryor and Reed were dominant in the second half rally, freshman
Elijah Minnie was a bit of a steadying influence throughout. He finished with a double-double -- 12 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
"A tremendously gutty effort by these guys,'' Toole said. "In the second half, we had fun. Guys were clapping. Guys were smiling. Guys were worrying about each other. Guys were there for each other. We had some big rebounds and deflections. Guys were covering up every single opportunity North Florida had to take a shot. That's how you have to play the game.''
