The win sends the 16th-seeded Colonials (20-14) to Charlotte, N.C., to face No. 1 Duke in a South Regional game Friday.
Jones hit 6 of 11 shots from the floor and 8 of 12 from the free-throw line while adding seven rebounds. Junior guard Rodney Pryor added 20 points, freshman guard Marcquise Reed posted 19 and freshman center Elijah Minnie logged a double-double with 12 points and a game-high 10 rebounds to lift Robert Morris to the second NCAA tournament win in school history.
The first also came at UD Arena, a 64-54 triumph of Georgia Southern in a 1983 play-in game.
After building a seven-point lead midway through the first half, the Colonials watched the Ospreys get hot to surge ahead by six by halftime on 58-percent shooting.
North Florida quickly stretched the lead to 13 in the second half with back-to-back 3-pointers and a three-point play for nine points on their first three possessions after the break.
But Pryor fueled a 16-4 run with seven points to get Robert Morris within a point, and Jones scored 12 of his 21 points in the final 10 minutes to help the Colonials overtake the Ospreys.
Junior forward Beau Beech led North Florida with 28 points, which tied his career high.
Quotable: "I wasn't really feeling that much lucky. I just felt the game swing into our hands. The basketball game is full of runs, and I think we just took our time, felt them getting on their heels. We had to take it stop by stop and get the best shot for our team." — Lucky Jones
Key play: After Reed had drawn a foul on a layup that gave Robert Morris the lead for good, Jones rebounded Reed's missed free throw for a stickback bucket that put the Colonials up four.
Key stat: North Florida committed 19 turnovers, one shy of its season high, and Robert Morris turned them into 21 points. The Colonials had five turnovers.
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