Moon Township, Pa. - The Robert Morris University men's basketball team climbed out of three double-digit deficits Saturday night and garnered an 81-78 overtime victory over Mount St. Mary's at the Charles L. Sewall Center. The win improves the Colonials to 12-5 overall on the 2006-07 season, including 4-4 in Northeast Conference action, while the Mount slipped to 6-13 overall and 5-3 in league play.
Down nine, 52-43, with 13:02 to play, RMU used a 12-2 run to take its first lead of the game, 55-54, with 9:28 remaining. Senior forward A.J. Jackson (Monessen, Pa. / Monessen) scored five points during the spurt, while junior forward Colson Sénat (Montreal, Quebec / Vanier College) hit a three-pointer. Despite the surge Mount St. Mary's responded by scoring six straight points to take a 60-55 advantage with 7:30 to go as Jeremy Goode hit a three-pointer and Markus Mitchell added a layup. Robert Morris was able to grab the lead back, 63-62, after junior guard Tony Lee (Boston, Mass. / Charlestown) scored a layup in the paint at the 3:56 mark of the second half, but Mychal Kearse came back with a jumper to get the Mount back in front, 64-63.
On RMU's next possession Lee fed Jackson in the paint for a layup to give the Colonials a 65-64 edge, but he missed the three-point play after being fouled by Mitchell and missing the free-throw attempt. RMU kept the lead the rest of the contest, scoring a fastbreak layup with just eight seconds to go thanks to senior guard Derek Coleman (Dorchester, Mass. / Charlestown), who stole the ball off of Kelly Beidler to give the Colonials a 71-68 advantage. However, Goode came back and drained a three-pointer with 1.9 seconds remaining to send the game into overtime with the score tied, 71-71.
In the overtime period Robert Morris scored first when Lee hit a layup at the 4:30 mark. He was also fouled on the play by the Mount's Chris Vann, and Lee converted the three-point play to give the Colonials a 74-71 lead. Mitchell came back with a layup to pull Mount St. Mary's within one, 74-73, and then the two teams went could offensively, each missing looks. Jackson gave RMU a 76-73 lead with 1:55 to play with a layup on a feed from Coleman, and Mitchell was again called for an infraction on the shot. This time Jackson converted the three-point play to push RMU to a four-point lead, 77-73.
Gus Durr's jumper with 43 ticks left in overtime pulled the Mount within two, 77-75, but Coleman was fouled with 27 seconds remaining, and he hit both free throws to get Robert Morris back to a four-point advantage, 79-75. However, Kearse drained a three-pointer with 18 seconds to go to close the Mount deficit to one, 79-78. After a Mount St. Mary's timeout, Jackson was fouled on the inbounds pass by Durr, and he hit both to give the Colonials an 81-78 edge. After a timeout by RMU, Goode's three-pointer as time expired was off the mark, giving the Colonials the win.
Kearse led all scorers in the game with 21 points on 10-of-12 shooting from the field, while Jackson paced Robert Morris with 20 points by converting eight of his 17 shots from the floor. Sophomore guard Jeremy Chappell (Cincinnati, Ohio / Northwest) added 18 points for the Colonials, while Lee registered 16 points, nine rebounds, nine assists and five steals. Also scoring in double figures for Mount St. Mary's was Durr with 16 points, Goode with 11 and Beidler 10 off the bench.
Robert Morris now travels east up Route 22 for its next game, visiting in-state rival Saint Francis (Pa.) Tuesday, Jan. 23, in an 8:00 p.m. game that will be televised live on Fox Sports Net Pittsburgh.
