Moon Township, Pa. / Charles L. Sewall Center-The Robert Morris University women's basketball flexed its defensive muscle Saturday night, holding the Stony Brook Seawolves to 22.2 percent shooting to take a 61-48 win at the Charles L. Sewall Center in Moon Township, Pa. The Colonials, now 2-1 on the season, allowed the Seawolves (0-3) to knock down just 12 field goals in 54 attempts while shooting 47.7 percent themselves.
The Colonials got double-digit scoring from three players with senior Monica Jones (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Woodland Hills (Howard College)) and junior Bianca Hooten (Canton, Ohio / Canton-McKinley (Bowling Green)) tying for team-high honors with 14 points each. Senior guard Angela Pace (Westchester, N.Y. / Woodlands (Monroe College)) finished with 13 points, six assists, five rebounds and two blocks.
"Having back-to-back wins against teams out of the Mid-American Conference and America East is always a nice accomplishment, although we only played positive basketball in spurts," said RMU head coach Sal Buscaglia. "We have a young team and, at times, we certainly show it. On the other hand, there is no question that we have outstanding team chemistry that we need to continue to develop in order to be an excellent team by midseason."
Robert Morris built a 19-point halftime lead, shooting 55.6 percent from the floor as Jones scored 12 of her 14 points in the opening 20 minutes. The Colonials opened up a 10-point margin in the game's first six minutes, hitting six of their first 10 shots to take a 14-4 lead. The margin stayed in double-digits until back-to-back layups cut the Colonials margin to 24-16 with just over four minutes in the half.
Jones had the bookends on an 8-0 run for RMU, starting with a runner in the lane before capping it with a trifecta, one of two for her in the half. After a pair of freebies by SBU's Kirsten Jeter, the Colonials tacked on five more points to take a 37-18 lead at the break.
A sloppy second half saw the Colonials push the lead to 21 points when freshman Vega Gimeno-Martinez (Valencia, Spain / Spanish National U-20), who had eight points, hit a three-pointer to make the contest 44-23. RMU committed 14 second half turnovers, including four on offensive foul calls, as they allowed Stony Brook to shrink the margin to 14 points, 44-30, following Gimeno's long ball.
A jumper by Pace jumpstarted the offense again and RMU followed through with a 16-5 run, taking the biggest lead at 60-35 when Pace hit a pair of free throws. Crystal Rushin scored five of her nine points for Stony Brook in the final three minutes to make the final score 61-43.
Jones and sophomore Mary Durojaye (London, England / Barking Abbey) paced the squad with seven rebounds each, all on the defensive end for both players.
Jeter led all scorers with 15 points on 5-of-16 shooting and 5-of-6 from the charity stripe. Rushin had seven boards.
Robert Morris continued its solid glasswork, outrebounding an opponent for the third straight game, 37-32. RMU was 6-of-13 (46.2 %) from three-point range and knocked down 13-of-18 (72.2 %) of its free throw opportunities. The Seawolves missed all 13 of their three-pointers, but hit on 19-of-23 (82.6 %) of their free throws.
The Colonials play their first road game of the season Wednesday, November 21, 2009, when they travel to Wright State for a 7:00 p.m tip-off.
