Brooklyn, N.Y. - LIU Brooklyn shot 52.9 percent from the field in handing the Robert Morris University men's basketball team its second straight loss in the Northeast Conference Tournament championship game Wednesday night at the Wellness Center, 90-73.
The Blackbirds earned their second straight automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with the win in improving to 25-8, while the Colonials slipped to 24-10.
In a rematch of last season's NEC title game thriller, the top-seeded Blackbirds didn't need overtime to fend off the No. 3 seed Colonials this year.
C.J. Garner scored 21 points, Julian Boyd had 18 points and 10 rebounds and Jason Brickman had 18 points and an NEC championship game-record 11 assists.
Redshirt junior guard Velton Jones (Philadelphia, Pa. / Northeast Catholic), RMU's leading scorer, was knocked hard to the floor in the opening minutes and appeared to come away with sore ribs. He played most of the game and scored 10 points, though he shot 3-for-12.
"It was hurting a little bit during the game but I tried to fight through as much as I could," Jones said.
Freshman forward Lucky Jones (Newark, N.J. / St. Anthony) scored 14 points for Robert Morris and redshirt sophomore guard Coron Williams (Midlothian, Va. / Christchurch School) added 13.
The Colonials handed LIU one of its two NEC losses during the regular season, but this time around they couldn't keep the Blackbirds' speedy backcourt of Brickman and Garner in check.
"We tried to play LIU basketball against LIU -- and they're better at it," RMU coach Andrew Toole said. "We tried to run up and down. We took quick shots."
The Blackbirds love to push the pace and at their best they are low-mid major showtime. They nearly blew the lid off the Wellness, Recreation and Athletic Center when Garner found Boyd on that long alley-oop. Boyd's dunk put LIU up 59-45 with 10 minutes left in the second half.
Garner's fadeaway in the lane put LIU up 74-60 with 4:03 to go and Robert Morris couldn't get it any close than 10 the rest of the way.
Robert Morris was making its fourth straight appearance in the NEC finals, trying to win three championships in four years.
"It's just a disappointing feeling that we played the way we did," Velton Jones said.
Notes: Velton Jones and Williams were named to the 2012 All-NEC Tournament Team ... Robert Morris shot just 37 percent (27-for-73) from the field and were just 5-of-26 (19.2 percent) from long range ... RMU's 73 field goal attempts were a season high and also tied an RMU single-game NEC Tournament record ... Velton Jones finished 4-for-4 at the free-throw line, pushing his career total in free throws made to 386, tying a career record ... All-time leading scorer Myron Walker also hit 386 free throws from 1990 to 1994
AP contributed to this story.
