Robert Morris forward Dallas Green barely hesitated after grabbing the Northeast Conference championship trophy.

He walked straight to Jimmy Langhurst, the senior captain whose season ended in December after a knee injury, and handed the trophy to him.

"When your senior captain goes down, you kind of fight for him," said Robert Morris coach Mike Rice, "and that's what our guys have done."

Langhurst is symbolic of a Robert Morris team that overcame a bevy of obstacles to win its second consecutive NEC championship.

Last year's leading scorer and NEC player of the year Jeremy Chappell graduated, as did NEC defensive player of the year Bateko Francisco.

And when Langhurst was injured, Rice had to start two freshmen in his backcourt.

But, he said, he still had high expectations.

"I wouldn't say you get depressed and sad," Rice said. "You just move on and figure out how to do it."

For the Colonials, it was defense.

They limited opponents to 41 percent shooting from the field, the second best mark in the NEC.

Rice said that helped the Colonials succeed in a conference where the last team to win back-to-back titles was Rider in '93 and '94.

"We played our formula very well -- just keep attacking, keep putting pressure on them, keep the [help side defense] and flying around and keeping fresh bodies in," Rice said.

Ten players who have appeared in at least a majority of the Colonials' games average more than seven minutes of playing time. Only one player, senior forward Rob Robinson, was named to the all-conference teams, and he was a second-team selection.

Rice said he is sometimes criticized for subbing out a player who is playing well offensively.

"To be honest with you, I have no idea sometimes what we do on offense," Rice said. "My sole thing is defend."

His players did not always agree with that system initially.

"I think last year, since day one, everybody was on the same page," Green said. "This year, some people were on different pages starting from the beginning of the year toward the end. But once we got to the end, everybody started buying in. I think we became successful after that."

It helped that those freshmen turned out to be pretty good basketball players.

"We brought a 5-foot-6 freshman to where he needed to be -- the leading scorer on this team," Rice said of Karon Abraham. "He needed to be efficient, he needed to be tough, he needed to be able to handle their best perimeter defender on him. And he's done everything and more."

Abraham led the team in scoring and was second in minutes played. He was named NEC rookie of the year.

He said his success is a product of the support he receives.

"That takes a lot off my shoulders because my teammates trust me, coaches trust me," he said.

Freshman starting point guard Velton Jones averaged 8.7 points per game and had more assists than turnovers. Freshman Russell Johnson often was the first off the bench.

At one point in the Colonials' 52-50 championship victory against Quinnipiac, four of Robert Morris' five players on the court were freshmen.

"Last year, we didn't really have a lot of freshmen," said Robinson, the leading returning scorer from last year's team. "Karon stepped up and did amazing numbers this year. We didn't really have that last year. We had Jeremy. We relied on Jeremy Chappell a lot. But this year, Karon stepped up and Velton. Everybody stepped up for us. It was a total team effort."

Abraham was named MVP of the NEC tournament, and now he is heading to the NCAA tournament.

"This is a dream," Abraham said. "A little boy growing up, I didn't think I was going to make it this far. This is a dream for me, and it came true."

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