Moon Township, Pa. – Senior forward
Lucky Jones tied a career-high with 27 points and the
Robert Morris University men's basketball team shot 53.6 percent (30-for-56) from the field in posting a 91-68 victory over Wagner in the quarterfinals of the 2015 Northeast Conference Tournament Wednesday at the Charles L. Sewall Center.
RMU improved to 17-14 on the 2014-15 campaign with the victory, while Wagner concluded its season with a record of 10-20.
Stedman Allen converted a three-point play to open the game's scoring to give the Seahawks an early 3-0 lead, but the Colonials responded with a 15-4 spurt to grab a 15-7 advantage at the 14:37 mark of the first half. Freshman guard
Marcquise Reed and junior guard
Rodney Pryor each scored five points during the run, while Jones connected for a three-pointer.
Freshman forward
Elijah Minnie gave Robert Morris its first double-digit advantage, 20-9, with 13:01 to play before the break with a three-pointer, but a dunk from Nolan Long and layups from Hugo Naurais and Marcus Burton helped Wagner close to within 20-15.
RMU followed with a 19-5 run that pushed its lead to 39-20, a spurt that was capped by a pair of free throws from Jones. However, the Colonials were held scoreless over the final four minutes of the half, and the Seahawks scored eight straight points to trim their deficit to 39-28 at halftime. Reed was the main offensive force for Robert Morris in the first half, scoring 12 points while recording a pair of steals.
Wagner was able to get its deficit into single digits just once in the second half, as Mike Aaman converted a pair at the free-throw line with 16:21 to play that helped the Seahawks close to within 45-36.
Robert Morris then went to work from beyond the arc, as Pryor connected from deep, followed by a trio of triples from Jones that allowed the Colonials to grab a 59-38 cushion with 12:39 remaining.
Jones finished with 27 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field, including a 5-for-6 performance from beyond the arc, while going 6-for-6 at the free-throw line. He led four Colonials in double figures. Reed contributed 22 points, five assists and three steals, while Pryor chipped in 15 points, eight boards and a career-high seven assists. Sophomore guard
Kavon Stewart added 10 points and five dimes.
"We shot the ball incredibly well again, and I thought we defended well enough for stretches where we were able to string some stops together," head coach
Andrew Toole said. "Give credit to Wagner, they continued to fight in the second half. Lucky made some huge threes for us, and we were able to extend the game and keep control of it."
Wagner was led by Burton and Aaman, who each scored 19 points. Burton scored 17 points in the second half and recorded a pair of steals, while Aaman grabbed eight rebounds.
"I'm extremely proud of my guys," Wagner head coach Bashir Mason said. "I thought we fought for the entire 40 minutes. Every mistake we made, with a veteran-led team, an older group, they made us pay for every mistake."
Robert Morris will host No. 3 seed Bryant at the Sewall Center in the semifinals of the 2015 NEC Tournament Saturday, March 7. Tip time is Noon.
Stat of the Night: 4 – Winning streak for Robert Morris after its win over Wagner in the quarterfinals of the 2015 NEC Tournament, matching a season high.
Tweet(s) of the Night:
