The Shot: Green Sends Sewall into Frenzy, RMU to NCAA's

By Paul Meyer
www.rmucolonials.com
March 12, 2009

Meyer On Morris Link

Moon Township, Pa. - March 12, 2009 - The Northeast Conference Player of the Year stepped up - after a nondescript first half.

The NEC Defensive Player of the Year stepped up -- especially down the stretch.

The league's Coach of the Year stepped up throughout - before perhaps stepping out.

But when the NEC championship game came right down to almost net-cutting time, it was Dallas Green - the Northeast Conference Player of the Nano-Second - who stepped in, stepped up and used that two-step to send the Robert Morris Colonials dancing.

Green's unplanned 12-foot jump shot from near the left baseline with 2.5 seconds - his only field goal of the game -- lifted RMU to a 48-46 victory over Mount St. Mary's in the NEC championship game Thursday night at a packed Sewall Center.

Now the Colonials have their chance to watch their name on the television screen Sunday when the NCAA dance card is unveiled.

"I can't explain the feeling,'' coach Mike Rice said. "It's why I wanted to be a head coach -- to get your team into the NCAA tournament. It's going to be a great day for Robert Morris University.''

"It's something I've dreamed about forever,'' junior forward Rob Robinson said. "I can't even imagine what it's going to be like.''

"I can't wait,'' senior guard Jeremy Chappell said. "It's going to be magical. It's going to be special. I can't wait for Sunday.''

"I picture it as being crazy,'' guard Jimmy Langhurst said. "I know we're all going to be together just waiting to see our name come up. Once it comes up, I know everybody's going to be jumping around acting like clowns. That's awesome. It's going to be a great atmosphere, and I can't wait.''

That wait won't be without its upside.

"The first 48 hours (after the game) you sit back and just understand what you've done - the enormous accomplishment that these individuals have done," Rice said.

One has to figure the Colonials will spend many of those 48 hours reliving Green's shot.

Robert Morris, in a 46-46 tie, got the ball after Robinson rebounded a Shawn Atupem miss with 33 seconds remaining. The Colonials called a timeout with 26.8 seconds left to set up a play designed to have Chappell, the NEC Player of the Year, take the final shot.

That did not go as designed.

With about eight seconds left, Chappell came off a high ball-screen to left of the lane and tried to split the Mountaineer defense. However, the defense knocked the ball loose, and Green wound up with it.

"The ball just rolled to me,'' Green said. "I saw three or four seconds left, so I shot it.''

Green's shot hit nothing but net - which didn't surprise him.

"I thought it was good,'' said the junior forward who's a 56 percent shooter from the field. "I'm from Indiana, so I have that touch. So when I shot it, man, I knew it was good. It felt good. It looked awkward, but I knew it was good.''

Green's shot left the Mountaineers dismayed.

"Sometimes you have a couple plays that happen and you almost can say, 'Well, this one might not have been meant to be,''' Mount St. Mary's coach Milan Brown said. "We thought we had a pretty good defensive stop there at the end, and they made a heads-up play. (Green) picked up a ground ball and shot a floater and it went in. It was a big play on their part. They just made one more play than we were able to make.''

The Mountaineers knew Chappell would try to make that "one play.''

"We knew he was their player,'' junior point guard Jeremy Goode said. "He made shots for them all year. The way it ended (with Green taking the shot), we didn't expect that to happen. We thought we had a stop. The guy made a tough shot, I guess, but I felt like we did what we were supposed to do. We knew the ball was going to be in (Chappell's) hands, and we got him to get the ball out of his hands. But it wound up being in someone else's hands who no one expected to shoot the ball at that time of the game.

"It hurts more because you'd rather see a guy who made shots his whole career (make that shot), and it comes from someone who made his first basket of the night. That hurts because, one, we didn't expect it and, two, we did what we were supposed to do but just didn't come up with the ball. It just wound up rolling into his teammate's hands.''

"Things happen,'' Green said.

"It worked out. He made it,'' Chappell said. "It didn't matter who made the shot. It went in. He's a part of the team. You know, it was the only shot he made all game and it was the biggest shot of the game.''

"Part of March is making shots,'' Mountaineer forward Kelly Beidler said. "That was the first shot he made all game and he made the shot. Unfortunately, it was at the end of the game where we really couldn't do anything about it.''

The Mountaineers did have one more opportunity, but Chappell intercepted their inbounds pass at midcourt, effectively ending the Colonials' grind-it-out victory.

"We had a togetherness and gutted one out,'' Rice said.

The final 10 minutes were intense - with the drama mounting each second following a great effort by RMU's Iffy Ehirim on a play with 9:52 left. The senior forward twice rebounded his own miss from close before finally getting a third shot to go down.

That put the Colonials up 35-33, but they produced only two made free throws by Robinson - a 49.5 percent foul shooter - over the next five and-a-half minutes.

Mount St. Mary's held a 42-37 lead with just under four minutes left, but the Colonials were determined not to lose to the Mount at the Sewall Center in the NEC tournament for the third consecutive season.

"We have this rope in the huddle and we don't want any strands coming apart,'' Langhurst said. "That was our whole motto tonight -- just staying together. Our shots weren't falling, (but) we went back on defense and that was our whole thing. We just kept fighting.''

Langhurst got the Colonials within two with a three-pointer from the top of the key - his only field goal of the game - with 3:49 left. Mezie Nwigwe made a free throw 30 seconds later, and then Bateko Francisco, the NEC Defensive Player of the Year, went to work.

He rebounded a Goode miss and went coast-to-coast through traffic for a layup that cut the Mountaineer lead to 44-43. On Mount's ensuing possession, Francisco forced a shot clock violation on Goode.

"It was (against) one of the best guards perhaps besides Jeremy Chappell in the league and (Francisco) took the ball,'' Rice said. "If anybody's going to will us to a victory and not worry about being down, it's Bateko Francisco. That's why he's the Defensive Player of the Year.''

Chappell rewarded Francisco's persistence by draining a trey from the key, sending the Colonials up 46-44 with 1:44 left.

Shawn Atupem made two free throws 27 seconds later to tie the game for the 12th and final time.

Robinson missed a jump shot with just under a minute remaining, and Shawn Atupem had a chance to lift the Mountaineers back into the lead. However, his driving layup down the right side of the lane didn't connect.

"We ran the play, and I just tried to be aggressive,'' he said. "I saw the opening, and I went to the basket. I was bumped a little bit, (but) I should have finished. I just missed the shot. I just missed a shot I should have made.''

Seconds later, Green made a shot he wasn't supposed to take, and pandemonium reigned in the Sewall Center.

"I can't tell you how proud I am of this team for just ... sticking ... with it,'' Rice said. "I loved the mental toughness our guys showed - well, both teams. It was a wonderful defensive battle. I thought maybe even last year and earlier this year, there's no way we could have won a game like that.''

Chappell, who had two points in the first half that ended in a 19-19 tie, agreed.

"Because we didn't play defense the way we do now,'' he said. "Two years ago, us having 19 points at the half, (we'd have) probably been down 40-19 at the half, so the way we play defense now we can score 19 points and still be in the game.''

"Tonight, the shots weren't dropping, but the purpose was there,'' Rice said. "The energy. The focus on just keeping defending. Our No. 1 weakness coming into this year was probably our mental toughness. When something would go wrong, we would start to break apart. We'd start to maybe argue with the refs, with each other. They didn't like being critiqued by me. Man, we had some rock solid dudes in that huddle - some brick-laying dudes in that huddle, but some rock solid dudes in that huddle, and I'm very appreciative of their toughness tonight.

"They just didn't get frustrated. They didn't lose their minds. You could so easily start screaming at the ref out of frustration or your teammates or the coach. I can't believe how calm they were in the huddle. I can't believe how focused they were. I'm actually kind of shocked about it. Man, they were rocks.''

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

Chappell scored 13 of his game-high 15 points in the second half. He scored eight of those is less than two minutes early in the half, got another two on a floater in the lane after an offensive rebound with 11:16 left and then hit that three with 1:44 remaining.

Chappell played much of the final eight minutes battling cramps in both legs.

"The championship's on the line, so I had to fight through it,'' Chappell said. "I can't worry about my legs.''

Chappell, who pushed his career point total to 1,864, was named the NEC tournament's Most Valuable Player. In three games, he scored 59 points and had 19 rebounds.

A PACKED SEWALL CENTER

Official capacity for the Sewall Center is 3,056, so the crowd of 3,227 represented RMU's first Sewall sellout - and then some.

"With the atmosphere, I knew in the first half, to be honest with you, we were going to be bad offensively,'' Rice said. "We don't play in front of that type of electricity every night. We just had to hang in there and grind it out.''

ARE MOUNTAINEERS DONE?

Had the Colonials lost, they would have played in the National Invitation Tournament because they won the NEC's regular-season championship.

Could Mount St. Mary's (19-13) get that NIT spot?

"I know it may be a long shot, but we're hoping this is not it for us and somebody will give us a call and tell us they want us to play,'' Brown said. "If they do, we're going to show up with bells on and compete. I think (because of) the schedule we played our guys have showed we deserve to try to continue playing.''

WILL RICE STAY?

One has to think Rice will be a "hot coach'' when this season ends.

The Colonials are 50-18 overall in his two seasons at Robert Morris - including 35-6 against NEC teams (counting NEC tournament games).

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM

Chappell and Robinson made the team and were joined by Beidler, Quinnipiac's Justin Rutty and Sacred Heart's Joey Henley.

NEC NUGGETS

Chappell's 15 points raised his season total to 574, the second-highest season total in RMU history. Myron Walker had 614 points in 1991-92 ... RMU shot 34 percent from the field Thursday night, its lowest figure since it shot 30.9 percent in an 88-62 loss to Duquesne at home Dec. 28 ... The 48 points represented the Colonials' fewest in a game since they had a program-record low in a 56-40 loss to Drexel Nov. 23, 2007 ... Mount St. Mary's guards Goode and Jean Cajou, who entered the game averaging a combined 28.6 points per game, had a total of nine Thursday night. They were 4-of-17 from the field, including 1-of-8 from beyond the arc.