Twenty minutes after his college career crashed, Chaz McCrommon sat with his head down. He thought it should have been simple enough. The Robert Morris Colonials got to point A. They could see point B. They should have been able to connect the dots.

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"Four years ... good season ... worked to get the third seed, play at home ... everything looking good ... we set it up well ... we just couldn't do it," McCrommon said.

The third-seeded Colonials fell to sixth-seeded Wagner, 69-65, last night at the Sewall Center in the quarterfinals of the Northeast Conference tournament. Robert Morris finished 14-15. Wagner (12-16) plays at No. 1 seed Monmouth in the semifinals Sunday.

McCrommon, a senior from Schenley High School who a day earlier was named to the All-NEC first team, came into the game averaging a team-best 16.9 points and 6.1 rebounds a game. Against Wagner's stiff man-to-man defense, he scored 13 points the hard way and had just one rebound.

He was 4 of 17 from the field, including 2 of 7 from 3-point range, and hit 3 of 6 free throws.

"Chaz missed some open shots," Robert Morris coach Mark Schmidt said. "That's not the typical Chaz performance. That's going to happen sometimes. You just wish it wasn't in his last game."

Robert Morris led, 31-29, at halftime, but the Seahawks stayed close and took the lead for good, 53-52, on Sean Munson's layup at 7:22.

The Colonials had a chance in the final minute, but McCrommon banged an attempt off the front of the rim and was assessed a foul on the play with 33.9 seconds left. Durrell Vinson hit both free throws to give Wagner a 66-59 lead and the winning points.

McCrommon made a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left, but the Seahawks were 3 of 3 in free throws after that, and the Colonials got a too-little, too-late 3-pointer from center Mark Anderson in the final second.

Anderson was the only Colonial who got inside and scored effectively. He finished with a game-high 18 points, made 6 of 9 shots from the field and grabbed seven rebounds. Guard Tony Lee added 12 points, guard Maurice Carter 10.

Freshman Mark Porter repeatedly drove inside against Robert Morris and led Wagner with 17 points. Munson added 15, Vinson 12 and DeEarnest McLemore 10.

McCrommon, one of four seniors on the team, was guarded primarily by McLemore and was surprised the Seahawks' defense was so stifling.

"They did a really good job," he said. "All my shots were contested. I didn't get any easy looks."

Robert Morris had found Wagner much more accommodating in a two-game sweep of the Seahawks in late January.

"They played way better defense [this game]," McCrommon said. "It wasn't anything special. It was just straight man. I thought they were going to be switching up defenses, throwing a bunch of different defenses at us."

Since their second loss to the Colonials, the Seahawks have won 10 of 11 games.

"We ran into a hot team," Schmidt said. "I didn't think we played our A game, but Wagner had a lot to do with it."

Wagner coach Mike Deane said it was Robert Morris that had something to do with his team's surge.

"We have, since the second half of the [earlier] game here, done a good job defensively no matter who we played."