March 17, 2006

Kansas City, Mo. - No. 3 seed Robert Morris College (Ill.) sailed past Spring Hill College (Ala.) on Friday to make it to the Quarterfinals at the 69^th Annual Buffalo Funds - NAIA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship.  The 32-team, single-elimination tournament runs March 15-21 at Municipal Auditorium.

The Eagles got off to a rocky start but found their groove and led by as many at 14 points in the first half.  Robert Morris had four players in double digits with Jerome Harper leading them with 18 points.  Reggie George finished with 15 points while Freeman Taylor and James Parker had 13 and 12 points, respectively.  Taylor also had a team high of nine rebounds as Robert Morris had a slight 42-38 rebounding edge.  This is the Eagles third straight trip to the NAIA tournament quarterfinal round.

Spring Hill sophomore center Barkley Falkner led all scorers with 31 points and had a game high of 12 rebounds.  The Badgers cut the lead down to four points early in the second half, but then the Eagles went on a 13-0 run.  Spring Hill made their eighth appearance to the NAIA National Tournament and finishes their season with a 22-9 record.

Robert Morris (30-3) will play in Saturday's 2 p.m. CST quarterfinal game against either Trevecca Nazarence University (Tenn.) or Azusa Pacific University (Calif.).

Box Score