Kansas City, MO - It appeared that the upset might be at hand, but in the end the #8 Robert Morris Men's Basketball team couldn't pin the first loss of the season on #1-ranked and undefeated Georgetown College (KY) as they fell 88-84 in the quarterfinals of the 2008 Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship on March 22, 2008, at Municipal Auditorium in downtown Kansas City, MO.

The Eagles were outsized by the Tigers, but they used an edge in quickness to their advantage, building leads of as much as six points during the first half.  Georgetown came back to tie the game at 37-all on a bucket off an offensive rebound at the buzzer to end the opening stanza.

RMC fell behind early in the second as the Tigers scored on put-backs off the offensive boards.  Consecutive three-point plays from Othyus Jeffers (Senior, Chicago, IL)put the Eagles up by a pair but GC came back to take an eight-point edge--their largest lead of the game--with 6:47 left.

RMC then climbed on Jeffers's back.  Over the next three minutes, the All-American candidate scored eight unanswered points to tie the game.  He teamed with Jason Bowden (Junior, Chicago, IL) and Andre Knox (Junior, Chicago, IL) to snuff out four straight GC possessions. When Jeffers finished off his run with a finger-roll in the lane off a pin-point pass from Terry Dunlap (Junior, Chicago, IL), the game was tied for the fifteenth and final time with just 4:27 remaining.

The Tigers managed to build a five-point edge at 83-78 with 31 seconds left after they forced turnovers on consecutive possessions for the Eagles.  Coach Al Bruehl adopted a strategy of trading free throws for possession and Georgetown obliged by missing opportunities from the charity stripe while the Eagles were scoring at the other end.

With only 12 seconds remaining, GC clung to a razor-thin 85-84 lead and Demetrius Guoins finally hit both of his chances for GC to increase the edge to three points. RMC's Andre White pushed the ball up court and was fouled while attempting a three-point shot with 6.8 seconds to go. Stepping to the line with a chance to tie the game, his first two tries bounced around the rim before falling away.  He purposefully missed his final chance, but GC came up with the big defensive rebound to ice the win.  A Tiger free throw with 5.9 seconds remaining rang up the final tally.

The game featured fifteen ties and seven lead changes. Both teams shot well from the floor in the second half, with the Tigers making 55.9 percent of their field goal tries (19-of-34) while the Eagles hit on 51.7 percent of their attempts (15-of-29).  RMC hit 27-of-38 from the free throw line but misses down the stretch doomed their chances of reaching the Fab Four.

"They're a good team," said Coach Bruehl, "but I think we just as good.  We missed some big free throws down the stretch and got some tough calls.  We played hard for the entire game.  I don't think anybody expected us to get this far and we were a couple of plays away from another trip to the semifinals."
Othyus Jeffers led all scorers with 25 points for the Eagles.  He also pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds to post his third double-double of the NAIA Tournament. Terry Dunlap added 19 points along with four assists and three steals.  Andre White posted 14 points, the third time he scored in double figures in the tournament.

Robert Morris ends its season with an overall record of 28-4. In six years in Division I of the NAIA, the Eagles have made five trips to the NAIA Tournament, posting a 12-5 record with three semifinal appearances and an appearance in the Sweet 16 to go with this year's trip to the quarterfinals.