RMU Wins In The 1st Round Of The NEC Tournament
MOON TOWNSHIP (93-7 The Fan) - Lucky Jones led RMU with a career high 27 points in a 91-68 win over Wagner in the first round of the NEC Tournament.
The Colonials only senior shot 8-12 from the floor, 5-6 from behind the arc and scored 15 points in the final 14 minutes of the game.
"It was an amazing feeling everybody dreams about having that moment and today was my moment and I took full advantage of it," Jones said. "I was happy my guys looked for me and they were very, very, very unselfish."
The Colonials (17-14) finished with 4 players in double figures and had 20 assists as a team. Marcquise Reed scored 22 points, Rodney Pryor had 15 and Kavon Stewart contributed 10 points.
Last Thursday, the Colonials crushed Wagner 91-59 and Andy Toole admitted he wasn't thrilled with the idea of playing the No. 7 seed twice in one week, with fear of a slow start in the first round.
"I was concerned about the maturity of our team we have had a little bit of a thought process that if we do something well once then that should just carry us through the rest of the time," Toole said.
Despite his initial concerns he said he was happy with the way his team handled the pressure and saw great energy throughout the entire game.
RMU hit 5 three pointers in the first half of the game to develop an early lead, including 2 long ones from Freshman Marcquise Reed.
He made fade away 3-pointer and then a contested jumper from the right elbow to give RMU a 32-20 lead with under 8 minutes to go in the first half. By the end of the half Reed scored 12 points and RMU secured a 39-28 lead.
Wagner showed RMU a full court press in the second half but RMU easily broke it down and Lucky Jones hit 3 shots from behind the arc to put RMU up 59-38, with under 13 minutes left in the game.
Reed hit a 3-pointer from the baseline just before the shot clock ran out to give RMU a 88-68 lead with under 2 minutes to go.
Wagner was never able to rally but Marcus Burton did finish 19 points for the Seahawks. Last week RMU held Burton to just 6 points. He finished 2nd in the NEC in scoring averaging 17.5 PPG for Wagner.
Mike Aaman also scored 19 points for Wagner.
RMU will play Bryant on Saturday at the Sewall Center in the second round of the NEC Tournament at noon.