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That celebration will have to wait. That is, if it happens at all.
With a chance to clinch the Northeast Conference regular-season title and the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, Robert Morris lost, 87-79, to Quinnipiac Saturday night at the Sewall Center.
"You can't control what happens," Colonials coach Mike Rice said. "We would have loved to win on senior night and clinch the NEC regular season. You can control how you respond."
Entering Saturday night, the scenario was clear for the Colonials -- beat Quinnipiac and Robert Morris earns its third consecutive NEC title and clinches the top seed in the postseason tournament.
The path to those two goals is still clear, but it won't come easy. The Colonials (19-10, 14-2) still control their own fate with a one-game lead over the Bobcats (19-8, 13-3) with two games remaining in the regular season.
But those final two games will prove challenging. Robert Morris will travel to Wagner (4-25, 2-14), a team that played it tough at home in December, and rival Mount St. Mary's, which with an eight-game winning streak is the hottest team in the NEC.
Any slip could cost the Colonials home-court advantage in the NEC tournament as Quinnipiac owns the tiebreaker between the two schools.
PDF"If you told me at the beginning of the year that I've got a game on the lead and I've got to go on the road and win it in two, I'm fine with that," Rice said. "I hated it and it ripped out my insides that we lost on senior night when we had a chance to close it out, but again, it's what sports are. You've got to get up off the mat."
The loss ends a 12-game NEC winning streak for Robert Morris. The Colonials had not lost a home conference game since Dec. 4, 2008.
Quinnipiac guard James Johnson led all scorers with 28 points -- 21 of which came in the second half. The Bobcats had a decided advantage in the frontcourt and outrebounded Robert Morris, 33-24.
Quinnipiac scored 16 second-chance points and shot 50.9 percent from the field.
The Bobcats pulled away late in the game with mid-range jump shots as the shot clock wound down.
Quinnipiac coach Tom Moore said he stressed the Bobcats' mid-range game in practice because the Colonials do a good job collapsing on the inside and using help-side defense.
"Robert Morris does not really allow you to drive the ball from outside of the arc all the way to the rim," Moore said.
Rice said his team needs to improve its one-on-one defense to stop teams from capitalizing on pull-up jumpers.
"It's man-to-man," he said. "Do you want to stop him or do you have enough toughness about you to stop him? We didn't tonight."
The Bobcats jumped out to an early lead and kept the Colonials at least five points back for most of the first half. The Colonials kept the Bobcats from pulling away in the first half with timely 3-point shooting. Robert Morris was 5 of 10 from long range and trailed, 35-33, at the half.
The Colonials took control early in the second half and grabbed their first lead when senior forward Rob Robinson dunked on a fastbreak with 18 minutes remaining. But Rice said whenever the Colonials went on a run, they hurt themselves with poor shot selection, turnovers or fouls.
The Bobcats built a 10-point lead with 2:25 left and survived a late surge.
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