Click Here For NEC Tournament Headquarters
Click Here For NEC Tournament Bracket
Click Here For Highlights

Fairfield, CT (AP) -- Coach Sal Buscaglia has a sign in his office that says simply: ''Believe''.

Even when his Robert Morris team was in the midst of a losing streak in January, the Colonials never lost hope. Now they're headed back to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three seasons.

''I told them believe in our system and we'll take you to the promise land,'' Buscaglia said after Robert Morris beat Sacred Heart 56-51 on Sunday to win the NEC Tournament championship. ''We started winning games toward the end.''

With Sunday's win, Buscaglia will have one last chance to get a first NCAA Tournament victory. The veteran coach announced before the season that he would be retiring when the year was over. Buscaglia has spent 38 years on the bench, including the last 13 at Robert Morris.

''He always gave us the credit, we had a lot of downs this season and he never stopped one second believing in us,'' said Ashley Ravelli, who scored 14 points to lead the Colonials. ''Lot of the credit goes to our coaches for this championship.''

The third-seeded Colonials (20-12) led 52-45 with 4:25 left before the Pioneers rallied with the next six points. Trailing 52-50 with 13.8 seconds left, Adaysha Williams hit one of two free throws to get the Pioneers within a point.

Ravelli was fouled a second later and hit both free throws to make it 54-51.

Sacred Heart (20-12) had one final chance but Williams' 3-pointer from the corner was short. Janee Brown sank two free throws to seal the win.
Robert Morris never trailed in the game and led by four at the half. The Colonials extended the advantage to 40-31 midway through the third quarter. Top-seed Sacred Heart rallied behind Shelby Hickey, who had all nine of her points in the second half.

Sacred Heart started out 2-10 with the final loss during that stretch coming at Robert Morris. The Pioneers had won 18 of 19 since, including a victory over the Colonials on Feb. 15.

''We did a great job turning this season around,'' Sacred Heart's Hannah Kimmel said. ''Really turned it around in conference play. Impressive what we did this year, we just happened to fall short. Our season's not over so we're going to keep playing.''

Kimmel scored all 13 of her points in the first half to lead the Pioneers.

---

TIP-INS:
Robert Morris: Buscaglia has won 706 games at four different schools and has 437 Division I victories. He is winless in four NCAA Tournament appearances. ... The Colonials are 6-3 in NEC title games, also winning in 1988, 1991, 2007, 2008 and 2014. ... This was the Colonials first win at Sacred Heart since 2008.

Sacred Heart: The Pioneers advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2006 for the first time and have been back two other times (2009, 2012). ... Kimmel was NEC player of the year, the fourth Pioneer to win that award. ... Former New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine, who is the school's athletic director, sat courtside cheering on the Pioneers.

UP NEXT:
Robert Morris: NCAA Tournament.

Sacred Heart: WNIT.

Story written by Associated Press' Doug Feinberg

2016 NEC All-Tournament Team
Anna Niki Stamolamprou, RMU (MVP)
Ashley Ravelli, RMU
Hannah Kimmel, SHU
Shelby Hickey, SHU
Alex Klein, BRY

Postgame Quotes

RMU Head Coach Sal Buscaglia
"We really came together as a team in the last 6 or 7 games. We were playing our best basketball, we were unified and they just bought in to what we thought would win us this championship and the credit goes to these young ladies and my staff that put them in position."
 
RMU's Anna Niki Stamolamprou on defense
"In a championship game you have to play great defense and I feel like we did. (Hannah) Kimmel didn’t score any points in the second half. That was our goal to stop Kimmel and Tarsi, to box them out and we did a great job on those two."
 
RMU's Ashley Ravelli on season
"We had a lot of downs this season and (Coach) never stopped believing in us for a second so a lot of credit goes to our coaching staff for this season and this championship. We lost our confidence in the season and the staff did not stop believing in us. Our defense was really focused on stopping their drive. (Shu) do that well, drive dish drive. We knew coming into this game that we had to work hard. Our work rate had to be 150 percent today."
 
RMU's Leah Wormack
Coach definitely prepared us, gave us confidence. We knew what we had to do, who we needed to stop, how hard we needed to go against (SHU). The staff filled us with confidence, we had confidence in each other. I think thats what kept us going whenever it got really close down the stretch. 
 
SHU Head Coach Jessica Mannetti

On the game in its entirety:
“First of all congratulation to Robert Morris and I wish them well in the NCAA Tournament.  They really brought it today.  We started off slowly and were inconsistent in the first half.  I’m proud of how we picked it up in the second half, but we fell just a little short.  Our effort was there, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out.”

On the atmosphere of a packed Pitt Center:
“It was a great crowd.  We may have been a little jittery, and Robert Morris is a seasoned team that has been to the finals three years in a row, and this is our first time in the finals in three years, but that’s not why we struggled some.  Our team was a little quite today.  I noticed at the team meal things were quite, but in a championship game you have to deal with pressure.  We picked things up in the second half but got some bad bounces and fell just a little short.”

On what happened on offense to the Pioneers today:
“We really didn’t share the ball well today.  When we are playing well, we always have more assists than turnovers.  I looked at the stats at halftime and saw we only had three assists and something like 10 turnover and was concerned.  We just didn’t connect on offense during the game.  Robert Morris did a good job of disrupting us with their physical play, plus we missed some open shots today; both some bunnies and some outside shots.”

On what was designed for the last play down by three points:
“It was designed as an isolation for Hannah or a quick dish and shoot.  I wanted us to get a good quick shot, not necessarily a three since 12 seconds is long time left in the game.  We got a good shot but it just didn’t go in.”

SHU's Hannah Kimmel

On how she was defended by Robert Morris in the game: 
“They face-guarded me.  They did a good job of it, but I’m use to that since a lot of teams did that to me this year.  Like coach said, we just weren’t there on offense today.  We just had too many turnovers.”

On the last play of the game:
“We were looking for a good shot. We were hyped up after drawing a charge to get the ball.  The last play just didn’t work out like we wanted it to, but we gave it our best shot and it just didn’t fall.”

On the season:
“We did a great job of turning things around once we got into conference play.  We are disappointed we lost today, but excited to keep playing in the WNIT.”

Junior Guard Shelby Hickey

On today’s game:
“Robert Morris is an aggressive and strong team and they interrupted our offense.  12 turnovers and only six assists was not good for us today.”

On the atmosphere in the Pitt Center:
“It was awesome in there today.  The crowd was great and so supportive.  We just came up a little short.”

On the season:
“It stinks we lost today, but I’m proud of how the season has gone and we have more games to play.”