March 18, 2009

Kansas City, Mo. - Robert Morris College (Ill.) overcame some shoddy free throw shooting to post a 76-73 overtime victory over Montana State University-Northern in game five of the 2009 Buffalo Funds NAIA Division I Men's Basketball National Tournament at Municipal Auditorium early Wednesday evening.

Robert Morris, which has the NAIA's longest active winning streak at 18 games, outscored the Lights 16-13 in the overtime period to claim the victory. The Eagles, who were just 19 of 39 from the free line, were clutch in the overtime period, draining nine of their 11 charity tosses. Robert Morris trailed 30-23 at halftime, but outscored Montana State-Northern 37-30 in the second half, shooting 57.1 percent in the second half.

Montana State-Northern took momentum into the halftime locker room as the Lights ended the first 20 minutes with a 16-2 run to take a 30-23 lead at the break. The Lights gave up the lead for the first time in the second half on a basket by the Eagles' Andre White with a minute to play in regulation. Robert Morris eventually built a four-point lead  but Montana State-Northern rallied with a pair of 3-pointers including one by Mark Henkel that tied the game at the buzzer.

Billy Rush and Kenny Page led the Robert Morris offensive attack with 19 points each. Reggie Bunch and White added 16 and 12 points, respectively, while Jeff Wilson grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.

Chris Johnson netted game scoring honors with 23 points for Montana State-Northern. He also added eight rebounds and five assists. Travis Noble contributed 19 points and Henkel finished with 10 markers for the Lights, who end the year with a 22-10 record.

Robert Morris advances to the second round on Friday where they will face the winner of the Fresno Pacific University (Calif.) and Tougaloo College (Miss.) contest at 9 a.m. CDT. The Eagles are 25-3 on the season.

GAME NOTES

Robert Morris used an early 9-0 spurt in the second half to get back into the contest and recorded an 11-0 run to take the lead late ... Kenny Page scored Robert Morris' first six points of overtime and the Eagles never trailed in the extra period ...  Robert Morris improves to 6-0 all-time in first-round contests and 10-5 overall ... Montana State-Northern falls to 2-2 in first-round contests and 3-4 overall ... this was the seventh straight tournament that the eighth seed has advanced to the second round.