Moon Township, Pa. - The Robert Morris University men's basketball team opened the second half on a 21-5 run to turn a two-point deficit into a 55-41 lead en route to a 77-64 victory over New Hampshire Tuesday night at the Charles L. Sewall Center. The victory improves the Colonials to 3-0 on the 2006-07 campaign, marking just the second time in the program's 31-year history an RMU team has started the season with three straight wins. The other time it happened came during the 1989-90 season.
RMU jumped out to a 16-10 lead in the early going of the contest as junior guard Tony Lee (Boston, Mass. / Charlestown) poured it on offensively, scoring eight points in the opening salvo en route to a first-half performance in which he shot 5-for-7 from the field and 4-for-4 from the free-throw line for 14 points. The Colonials owned the lead the majority of the first half but watched as the Wildcats used a 16-12 spurt to take a two-point lead into the break, 36-34.
Leading, 25-20, with 9:22 remaining in the first half, Radar Onguetou knotted the score, 27-27, with an old-fashioned three-point play thanks to a foul on RMU's Mezie Nwigwe (Hyattsville, Md. / High Point). Dan McGeary then bumped UNH to a 29-27 advantage with a jumper at the 4:49 mark of the first half, but senior guard Derek Coleman (Dorchester, Mass. / Charlestown) answered with a three-pointer. The back-and-forth affair continued the rest of half until New Hampshire's Jermaine Anderson drained a three-pointer at the buzzer to send the Wildcats into halftime with a 36-34 lead.
In the second half Robert Morris turned its defense up a notch and began pushing the ball to the post, as senior forward A.J. Jackson (Monessen, Pa. / Monessen), held scoreless in the first half, came through offensively. He scored all 20 of his points in the second half on 6-of-10 shooting from the field and a perfect 4-for-4 from the charity stripe. He scored seven points during RMU's run to open the second half, while sophomore guard Jeremy Chappell (Cincinnati, Ohio / Northwest) added six points.
Robert Morris pushed its lead to 15 on a pair of occasions, but New Hampshire was able to get its deficit down to single digits, 64-56, after a three-pointer by Tyrece Gibbs. Jackson answered Gibbs' three-pointer with one of his own, and the closest the Wildcats were able to get the rest of the way was nine points.
Jackson led all scorers in the contest with 20 points while adding a game-high eight rebounds, while Lee contributed 18 points, five rebounds and five steals for Robert Morris. Anderson came off the bench to supply New Hampshire with 13 points, while Gibbs also added 13 for the Wildcats.
Robert Morris will look for its first 4-0 start in school history Sunday, Nov. 26, when it travels to Orono, Maine, for a 1:00 p.m. contest against Maine.
Notes: Robert Morris shot 52.8 percent (28-for-53) from the floor, while New Hampshire converted 43.6 percent (24-for-55) of its shots ... In the second half the Colonials converted 64 percent (16-of-25) of their shots from the floor while holding the Wildcats to a shooting percentage of 32.1 percent (9-for-28) ... Coleman finished with 12 points and nine assists for the Colonials, while Chappell finished with 13 points and five rebounds ... In the second half of RMU's three games so far this season Jackson has scored 60 points ... In the first half in that same time span Jackson owns 15 points scored ... RMU shot an even 50 percent (10-for-20) from beyond the arc and were led by Coleman and Jackson, who each finished 4-for-6.
