Brooklyn, N.Y. / Wellness Center-Redshirt senior guard Angela Pace (Westchester, N.Y. / Woodlands (Monroe College)) tallied 19 points and 16 rebounds as the Robert Morris University women's basketball team captured a 76-65 victory over the Long Island Blackbirds in a Northeast Conference contest Thursday night. The Colonials maintain first-place in the conference, improve to 3-0 and 8-6 overall while the Blackbirds slip to 8-6 and 2-1 in league play.

Pace did the majority of her damage in the second half, tallying 13 points and 12 boards in the final 20 minutes. The senior went 8-19 from the floor in addition to dishing out six assists.

Junior Bianca Hooten (Canton, Ohio / Canton-McKinley (Bowling Green)) was the only other Colonial in double-digits, scoring 14 points in an otherwise balanced RMU attack. Freshman Anna Gailite (Riga, Latvia / Latvian National U-20) swatted nine shots, setting a career high in that category as well as points. She was 4-of-6 from the field for eight points and had four rebounds.

Robert Morris held the lead for the entirety of the contest, but were only able to break away from Long Island in the final three minutes. The Colonials built the lead to as many as 12 points, 61-49, when junior Destiny Harrison (Niagara Falls, N.Y. / Niagara Falls) hit the first of two free throws with 7:58 left to play.

The Blackbirds chipped the lead down to five points, 67-62, when Ashley Palmer buried a three from the right wing with 3:31 left to play. The Colonials, however, scored the next five points and held LIU off the board for next three minutes to seal the 11-point victory.

The first half was made up by multiple runs from each team. The Colonials started it off, as Pace tallied two straight buckets to start a 10-2 run that ended with a Hooten jumper to make it a 12-4 margin. The Blackbirds came right back with a 6-0 run powered by a Heidi Mothershead three and three points from Connie James.

After Palmer's first three of the game made it a 22-19 contest, the Colonials tallied seven straight points, five from senior Monica Jones (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Woodland Hills (Howard College)) to push the lead to 10 points. Again, the lead was short live as Long Island finished the half on a 13-6 spurt to make it a 35-32 halftime lead for RMU.

Long Island, whch only had scoring by its starting five, was led by Chelsi Johnson's 20 points. Palmer  added 14 while Kiara Evans tacked on 12 points.

The Colonials, who had nine different players scored at least two points, shot 44.8 percent from the floor and outrebounded the Blackbirds, 56-39. Long Island hit just 33.3 percent of their shots. RMU held edges in the paint (50-32), second chance points (24-16) and bench scoring (36-0).