KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Chase Sukut scored 11 of his 17 points in the second half and Rocky Mountain College made the most of its first trip to the NAIA semifinals by beating Robert Morris of Chicago 75-70 Monday night.
Rocky Mountain (27-9), a school with an enrollment of 800 from Billings, Mont., shot 15-of-26 in the second half to become the first Frontier Conference school to reach NAIA championship game.
Devin Uskoski had 11 points and 10 rebounds and Anthony Allen added 13 points for Rocky Mountain, which will face Columbia (Mo.) or Mid-America Nazarene in Tuesday’s championship game.
Robert Morris (27-4) held Rocky Mountain to 4-of-17 shooting from 3-point range, but couldn’t stop the Bears inside and lost in the semifinals for the fourth time in five years.
Reggie Bunch had 22 points, Andre White had 16 points and Kenny Page added 10 points and 10 assists for the Eagles, who had won an NAIA-best 21 straight games.
Rocky Mountain, which had never won an NAIA tournament game before this season, found itself in another hole after rallying from halftime deficits of nine and 11 points in three tournament games.
Unable to contain White or Marcus Hall, who combined for 21 first-half points, the Bears trailed 38-31 at halftime this time.
Rocky Mountain got back in it by going through Uskoski.
The Bears weren’t able to get the ball to Uskoski much in the first half, but went to him almost exclusively in the second. The senior forward had just nine points in the half, but set his teammates up for easy shots with crisp passes out of the post. He had four assists and created numerous other good looks with the defense collapsing around him.
Rocky Mountain quickly made up the halftime deficit, yet couldn’t pull away from Robert Morris, the only seeded team left in the tournament.
Leading 71-68 with just under a minute left, Rocky Mountain had a chance to pull away, but threw the ball away. Robert Morris’ Hall then hit two free throws with 30 seconds left, but Sukut followed 10 seconds later by making two at the other end to make it 73-70.
Robert Morris missed a shot, then Allen sealed the victory with two free throws after grabbing an offensive rebound off a missed free throw by Uskoski with 7 seconds left.