Karvel Anderson looked lethargic on the court in the first half of Thursday night’s contest against Long Island.

But at halftime, teammate David Appolon threw a Gatorade bottle in Anderson’s direction and apparently it was the spark needed to propel Robert Morris to victory.

Anderson exploded for 26 points, all in the final 20 minutes of play, as RMU (17-11, 12-1) knocked off Long Island-Brooklyn (8-17, 3-9), 73-64, at the Charles L. Sewall Center.

“My teammates kept pushing me and kept telling me to be aggressive and do what I do,” Anderson said after his team clinched a share of the Northeast Conference title. “They got me going a little bit and kept trying to find me.”

Both teams matched each other shot-for-shot in the game’s opening minutes, but the Blackbirds used an 11-2 run to go into halftime up by 10 points.

And the first few minutes of the second half weren’t much better for the Colonials.

“I felt we worked too hard to let this slip away,” said Anderson, RMU’s spectacular senior. “We let one slip away earlier in the season and we knew we’d regret it. We’ve overcome some adverse things and LIU wasn’t going to be the team to beat us again.”

But then, at the 6:53 mark, the momentum began to shift.

Robert Morris strung together a 16-3 run of its own to take a three point advantage with 2:08 remaining.

Despite only trailing by two with 48 seconds left, LIU appeared to have a chance to knot the score.

But that’s when Anderson took charge, recording six tallies in the contest’s final 17 seconds to secure the Robert Morris win.

“I can’t express how proud I am of the team,” said fourth year head coach Andy Toole. “I wish us coaches can take all the credit, but they did it. We were just along for the ride.”

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Kyle Gorcey