Moon Township, Pa. / Charles L. Sewall Center-The Robert Morris University women's basketball team used a late run to defeat Quinnipiac, 61-57, in their home finale Saturday afternoon at the Charles L. Sewall Center to reach the 20-win plateau for the fifth time in the last six seasons. The Colonials, who also secured the outright Northeast Conference regular season championship, sit at 20-7 overall and 15-1 in league play with two games remaining in the regular season.
Under the guidance of seventh-year head coach Sal Buscaglia, Robert Morris has gone from a 1-26 record the season prior to his arrival to recording 20 wins in five of the last six seasons. After going 3-24 in 2003-04, Buscaglia guided the Colonials to marks of 20-10, 20-9, 24-8 and 23-10 during the next four seasons including NEC regular season titles in 2007, 2008 and this season along with NCAA Tournament berths in 2007 and 2008.
Saturday, Robert Morris held the lead for all but 2:49 before Quinnipiac's Courtney Kaminski hit a 15-foot jumper to tie the game, 54-54, with 3:20 left to play in regulation. Senior guard Angela Pace (Westchester, N.Y. / Woodlands (Monroe College)) answered right back, floating through the lane dropping a short jumper to put RMU back up two points.
A missed three by the Bobcats (10-17, 5-11 NEC) was capitalized upon by the Colonials after RMU grabbed two offensive rebounds on the next possession giving freshman Vega Gimeno-Martinez (Valencia, Spain / Spanish National U-20) a chance to drill a three from the corner, stretching the lead to five points with 2:06 to play. Quinnipiac missed a three-pointer and then turned the ball over, effectively ending the game with 31 seconds left. Sophomore forward Mary Durojaye (London, England / English National U-20) knocked down two free throws to make a last second three by Lisa Lebak moot, giving Robert Morris the 61-57 victory.
Durojaye finished the game with a career-best 14 rebounds, 10 on the offensive end, and added eight points. Pace tied for game-high honors with 15 points, going 7-of-16 in the game, while grabbing seven rebounds, dishing out three assists and getting three steals. Senior Monica Jones (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Woodland Hills (Howard College)) tacked on 12 points, seven boards, five steals and three assists while Gimeno finished with 10 points.
Quinnipiac hit at 48.9 percent for the game while RMU hit at just 33.8 percent. Robert Morris, however, offset the 15 percent difference by forcing 28 turnovers and grabbing 20 offensive rebounds. That resulted in 23 more shots for the Colonials who took 68 to just 45 for the Bobcats.
Kaminski finished with 15 points while Lisa Lebak and Alyssa Jann tacked on 11 points each for Quinnipiac.
The Colonials travel to Wagner for a 5:00 p.m. game on Thursday, February 25.
