Moon Township, Pa. - Senior forward A.J. Jackson (Monessen, Pa. / Monessen) and junior guard Tony Lee (Boston, Mass. / Charlestown) of the Robert Morris University men's basketball team were named to the 2007 All-Northeast Conference Second Team Wednesday in a vote conducted by league head coaches. It marks the second straight postseason honor for Jackson, who garnered All-NEC First Team accolades in 2006, while Lee is honored for the first time.
Entering the 2007 NEC Tournament, Jackson leads the Colonials in scoring (16.7 ppg) and rebounding (7.7 rpg) while shooting 47 percent (166-for-353) from the floor and 84 percent (79-for-94) from the free-throw line. He ranks fourth in the league in scoring and second in rebounding, while his marksmanship from the charity stripe has him ranked fifth. Jackson enters the NEC Tournament having scored in double figures in eight straight games, averaging 17.6 points and 8.0 rebounds per game over that span, and is coming off one of his most complete performances of the season in RMU's 2006-07 regular-season finale. In a 90-74 win over Long Island (2/26/07), Jackson paced the Colonials with a season high 34 points while tallying 12 rebounds, his seventh double-double of the 2006-07 campaign and 21st of his career.
Lee ranks second for Robert Morris in both scoring (16.1 ppg) and rebounding (6.2 rpg) entering the 2007 NEC Tournament while leading the league in both field goal percentage (.600) and steals (2.78 per game). He ranks sixth in Division I in steals with his 2.78 per game average, while his field goal percentage has him ranked 23rd. Lee is also among the NEC leaders in assists, assist-to-turnover ratio and offensive rebounds. He ranks fifth in the circuit in assists (4.44 per game), sixth in offensive rebounds (2.41 per game) and 11th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.29). With career totals of 1,030 points, 523 rebounds and 267 assists, Lee became just the sixth player in NEC history, and first as a junior, to eclipse career totals of 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 250 assists.
Robert Morris, under the direction of sixth-year head coach Mark Schmidt, enters the 2007 NEC Tournament as the No. 4 seed and will host No. 5 seed Mount St. Mary's Thursday, March 1, for a 7:30 p.m. quarterfinal contest at the Charles L. Sewall Center. The Colonials enter the game with an overall record of 17-10, while the Mount has posted an overall record of 10-19.
