Those of us at OSG HQ would like to welcome Robert Morris University to the group of teams that will be playing later in the month of March.
Here's how they did it:
Dallas Green ((pictured, thanks AP)) picked up a loose ball and made a hurried shot with 2.5 seconds remaining for his only basket of the game, and regular-season champion Robert Morris shook off its tournament jinx against Mount St. Mary's for a 48-46 victory Wednesday night in the Northeast Conference championship game.
Jeremy Chappell scored 15 points as Robert Morris (24-10), rallying from five points down in the second half to beat the 2008 champion Mountaineers (19-13) for the third time this season, withstood a ragged performance on its home court to reach the NCAA tournament for the first time in 17 years.
Each of the previous two seasons, the Colonials swept the regular season series from Mount St. Mary's, only to lose to the Mountaineers on their home court.
This time, Chappell - MVP of the Northeast regular season and tournament -- hit a 3-pointer to put the Colonials ahead 46-44 with 1:42 remaining, but Shawn Atupem hit two free throws with 1:17 remaining to tie it.
After each team missed chances to take the lead, Chappell had the ball knocked away from him with the clock winding down, but Green picked it up close to the baseline and put in a leaning shot for one of the biggest baskets in school history.
Kelly Beidler scored 12 and Atupem had 11 for Mount St. Mary's, which missed 11 of 12 3-point attempts while being denied its second successive trip to the NCAA tournament.
Mount St. Mary's went on a 7-0 run to take a 40-35 lead on Markus Mitchell's basket with 6:56 remaining. The Mountaineers also had a chance to expand on a five-point lead at 42-37, but Jean Cajou took a pair of long 3-pointers on successive possessions instead of trying to work the clock for better shots.
Both teams obviously had the we're-on-TV jitters in the first half, when the Colonials missed 17 of their first 23 shots and Chappell, averaging 22 points in the tournament, didn't score until making two free throws with 3:17.
But Mount St. Mary's -- which shot 39.1 percent overall (18-of-46) -- couldn't take advantage, managing only a 19-all halftime tie in a ragged game in which the teams combined to miss 37 of 53 shots in the half and 1-for-14 from 3-point range. Robert Morris won despite shooting 34 percent (18-of-53).
Robert Morris, 4-0 previously in conference championship games played on its home court, didn't take its first lead until Jimmy Langhurst converted two free throws resulting from a technical foul with 55.6 seconds remaining, making it 19-17.
The Mountaineers came out of a timeout only to call another one as soon as taking the ball out, after realizing they had six players on the court, but it didn't prevent the technical from being called.
That extra player might help the Northeast next week.
Robert Morris is going to the NCAA tournament -- now, the question is how long the Colonials will stay. No Northeast team has won anything in the NCAAs other than a play-in game or a game held to determine the last-seeded team in a region, and the conference hasn't had a team seeded higher than 13th since there were only 12 teams in a region.
Last year, Mount St. Mary's beat Coppin State 69-60 in the play-in game, then was beaten by North Carolina 113-74.
The game drew a school-record crowd of 3,227 at Robert Morris, a suburban Pittsburgh school that has never beaten city rival Pitt in 27 attempts.
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