Lockdown: Colonials Advance by Bottling Up Perunicic

By Paul Meyer
www.rmucolonials.com
March 6, 2009

Meyer On Morris Link

Moon Township, Pa. - March 6, 2009 - At the top of Robert Morris' to-do list Thursday night was this: Make sure there is no second scintillating "Stefan at the Sewall'' show.

Consider that entry having been emphatically crossed off.

Stefan Perunicic, the St. Francis (N.Y.) freshman who burst on the Northeast Conference scene with 28 points in the Terriers' 87-79 win at Robert Morris Dec. 4 in each team's NEC opener, had no such luck Thursday night in the Colonials' 73-60 victory in the quarterfinals of the NEC tournament.

Perunicic, who was 7-for-11 from three-point range in that December game, managed just one trey and finished with five points Thursday night as Robert Morris (22-10) won, 73-60.

"That was our game plan,'' RMU guard Jeremy Chappell said. "We weren't going to let Perunicic beat us. He beat us the first game. No matter what, he wasn't going to be the reason we lost this game.''

Chappell and junior forward Dallas Green were the primary Perunicic pesterers Thursday night. They limited him to just four shots - the fourth taken with 15 minutes still to play in the first half.

Perunicic did try a fifth shot - a forced three under pressure from the left baseline with 17:42 left in the second half - but he was fouled on the shot by Green, so the shot officially didn't count.

"Coach (Mike) Rice told us to keep our left arm up because he's shooting anytime he gets the ball,'' Green said. "So we (had) to keep our left hand up and force him to dribble left. (We had to remember that) no matter where he is on the court we have to get on him because he can shoot it from anywhere.''

Thing is, Perunicic barely shot the ball at all.

"I tried to find some space to shoot the ball, but it was very hard,'' he said. "The guys from Robert Morris know I can shoot the ball well. They pressured me hard. I tried to focus on other stuff - rebounds, tried to get some assists.

"Last time (here in December), guys probably didn't know me. It was the first conference game. They didn't know I could shoot the ball well, and I got more space. (Thursday night) that wasn't the case.''

"Tremendous,'' Colonial guard Jimmy Langhurst said of the job done by Chappell and Green. "We worked on it all week. He ruined the game for us the first time they came here, so we weren't going to let that happen. He had two attempts (from beyond the arc). I think that's pretty good.''

The Colonials actually began making defensive adjustments on Perunicic during the second half of that game in December after he hit two quick threes early in the second half.

Rice didn't want to get too specific about what the Colonials did.

"He's a right-handed shooter, and we did some things that bother right-handed shooters,'' the coach offered. "He has kind of a long windup, and we took that away from him.''

Took almost everything away from him, it turned out.

From the 16-minute mark of that second half in December, through the rematch at St. Francis (N.Y.) Feb. 5 - in which Perunicic was 2-for-7 from downtown and had six points - and including Thursday night's game, Perunicic was just 4-of-14 from the field (3-for-11 from deep) and scored only 13 points.

"They did a real good job at our place at taking his shots away, too,'' Terrier coach Brian Nash said. "You make seven three's (in a game), they're not going to let you get shots.''

The one trey Perunicic did make Thursday night was at least in part because of a mistake Chappell made defensively. Instead of staying on Perunicic, Chappell switched off on another Terrier.

"I wasn't supposed to help,'' Chappell said. "That was our game plan -- if somebody gets beat, don't help off Perunicic. And I did (help) because I'm so used to it. That's our defense. I helped and he hit a three. I knew it was going in and I knew coach Rice was going to say something. After that I didn't help at all.''

Rice mentioned the mistake to Chappell seconds later during a media timeout.

"He had one (defensive) mixup,'' Rice said. "He's unbelievable. He did a spectacular job. I thought I would miss Tony Lee (the NEC Player of the Year last season) - Mr. Everything here. Tony kind of defended his way. He just kind of took the ball from people.

"Jeremy does everything. Jeremy defends on the ball. Jeremy (defends) off the ball. Jeremy's a consummate team defensive player. You would think because he's (this season's NEC) Player of the Year and our leading scorer he would relax on defense. But that's why we're a good defensive team -- because our best players buy into defending every possession.''

"I know Mike's challenged him to become a better defensive player and he's embraced it,'' Nash said. "He's physical and he gets up in you. He takes the challenge. That's why he's the Player of the Year. Sometimes it doesn't look like he's playing great, but yet you look at the stat line at the end of the game. He's got 19 points, he's got rebounds, he's got assists and he's done a real good job defensively on guys.''

All the Colonials played well defensively.

Terrier guards Ricky Cadell (20) and Jamaal Womack (18) combined for 38 points, but the pair needed 30 attempts to get its 10 field goals.

"That team is very good in the first seven seconds of the shot clock and very good at the last seven seconds of the shot clock because of all their penetrators,'' Rice said. "Our level of demand is you defend for 40 minutes. You defend for four minutes, five and then you come out and you rest. That's our formula. You play as hard as you possibly can on the defensive for as long as you're in there.''

That defensive pressure helped the Colonials build a 37-15 lead during the first 17 and-a-half of the game.

"At home, they're a better full court pressure team, and I think that just took us out of the game early,'' Nash said.

"I thought our intensity, our focus, was very good for the first 10 or 15 minutes,'' Rice said. "I thought we really did a good job defending what they wanted to do in the first half.''

"We know we dug ourselves too much of a hole in the first half,'' Nash said. "Anytime you get down 20 points to a team that that's good on their home floor and they're playing as hard as they were, it's tough to battle back from. But we tried to. I think we did a good job getting ourselves back in the game. But we dug ourselves too much of a hole early in the game.''

"They came out with a lot of energy,'' Womack said. "You can't go down by that much -- especially away from your house.''

The win sends the Colonials to a semifinal game Sunday at the Sewall at 2 p.m. against Quinnipiac (15-15), the fifth seed which won at fourth-seeded Long Island 86-78 in overtime. Long Island was 12-3 at home this season. Quinnipiac delivered two of those losses.

Quinnipiac had a 58-42 lead with 7:48 left Thursday night - and led 69-58 with 2:37 remaining -- but the Blackbirds charged back and forced overtime when NEC Freshman of the Year Julian Boyd hit a three at the buzzer. However, Quinnipiac regained control in the overtime. Brian Geffen made a trey that gave the Bobcats an 80-76 lead with 2:43 left, and Quinnipiac made six of 10 free throws thereafter to hold off the Blackbirds.

"I have an incredibly resilient and incredibly tough group of kids,'' Quinnipiac coach Tom Moore said. "Honestly, in all of the years (I've coached), I've never seen a team develop more toughness as a group.''

Long Island coach Jim Ferry was equally proud of his bunch.

"I thought the kids just showed great character like they had all year,'' he said. "We made some plays, and then Julian Boyd hits that three to put it into overtime. I thought we showed a lot of heart against a very good team.''

James Feldeine led Quinnipiac with 22 points. Justin Rutty added 18 points and 16 rebounds.

In the other quarterfinal games, second-seeded Mount St. Mary's beat seventh-seeded Wagner 72-62, while third-seeded Sacred Heart beat sixth-seeded Central Connecticut State 76-64.

Mount St. Mary's, which represented the NEC in the NCAA tournament last season, survived another fine shooting night by Wagner's Joey Mundweiler. The senior guard, who made 11 treys at Monmouth in the regular-season finale, was 7-for-13 from deep at Mount St. Mary's and finished with 22 points.

The Mountaineers countered with 21 points from guard Jean Cajou and 16 points off the bench from Shawn Atupem.

"March is about surviving,'' Mountaineer coach Milan Brown said.

Cajou scored 18 of his points in the second half, including seven in the final 1:35. Cajou's production offset an off-night from junior guard Jeremy Goode, who was 1-for-12 from the field and wound up with only five points.

"We had our chances,'' Mundweiler said. "We just couldn't put a run together. You could feel it the whole game.''

Sacred Heart got 22 points from Chauncey Hardy, who missed the Pioneers' previous two games because of an injury to his right wrist, and 15 points from Joey Henley in fending off Central Connecticut State.

Sacred Heart continued its fine shooting recently, hitting 50 percent from the field and making 9 of 21 3-point attempts. CCSU, meanwhile, continued to struggle from deep, making just 4 of 15 from beyond the arc.

"Our Achilles heel all season has been the inability to defend the three,'' CCSU coach Howie Dickenman said. "It's very demoralizing when you're grinding just for a deuce and on the other end they're launching (threes) and as a coach you know [they're) going in.

"You can do that math. It doesn't work too well.''

THANKS FOR COMING

The Colonials were very appreciative of the strong vocal support they received from the crowd of 1,173 Thursday night.

"I think it gave us a whole bunch of confidence,'' Green said. "Our fans (have) started coming out. Now we've just got to prove to Robert Morris that we can play and we can win.''

"That's the biggest student section we've had this whole year,'' Langhurst said. "Hopefully we get more and we build off this.''

"The last two games (including the regular-season finale against Mount St. Mary's) really felt like we started to build a fan base and a program and an excitement and that students are starting to get behind us,'' Rice said. "It looked like we got Robert Morris -- the university (Thursday night). It was a fun atmosphere, and that's what I want to build.''

WHITHER WOMACK

St. Francis (N.Y.)'s Womack finished his solid career with 1,153 points.

"The ride is over,'' Womack said, "but new things come into our lives after basketball, so hopefully God has some good things (for me).''

NEC NUGGETS

The Robert Morris bench outscored the Terrier reserves, 22-9 ... Sacred Heart has won five of its past six games against CCSU, including the past two postseason games ... Over its final nine games, CCSU shot only 25.2 percent (29-of-115) from three-point range ... Mount St. Mary's shot just 39.3 percent from the field Thursday night but made 20-of-26 free throw attempts. Wagner was only 8-of-17 from the foul line ... Quinnipiac was 23-of-41 at the free-throw line at Long Island.