Moon Township, Pa. / Sewall Center-The Robert Morris University women's basketball got inspiring performances from freshman Artemis Spanou (Rhodes, Greece / Greek National Team) and senior Yohanna Morton (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic / Dominican National Team) in a 74-61 win over Mount St. Mary's Saturday afternoon at the Charles L. Sewall Center in Moon Township. The win ended a four-game RMU slide, improving the squad's record to 14-13 overall and 11-6 in the Northeast Conference. The Mount falls to 8-20 overall and 5-12 in conference contests.
Spanou, the league-leader in double-doubles, recorded her 11th of the season with 15 points and 15 rebounds. She was 5-of-11 from the field and 5-of-6 from the charity stripe. She also had two assists and two steals in 38 minutes. Morton, playing for the first time in three weeks after a knee injury, finished with 18 points, including a pair of treys, in just 22 minutes of action. She had five rebounds, two assists and two steals as well.
Senior Destiny Harrison (Niagara Falls, N.Y. / Niagara Falls) tacked on 12 points on 4-of-11 shooting while coming off the bench.
Both teams started red hot, trading baskets until Harrison buried three-pointers on back-to-back possessions to put the Colonials on top, 17-13, just over seven minutes into the action. Mount battled back to the tie the game at 19 on a Selina Mann lay-in three minutes later.
An 8-0 Robert Morris run featured baskets by four different players and ended with a nice up-and-under lay-in by sophomore Anna Gailite (Riga, Latvia / Latvian National U20 Team) with 7:18 left in the opening half. The Mountaineers answered right back. Consecutive three-pointers by Kelly Guierriero spurred a 9-0 response from the visiting team and put RMU in a one-point hole.
Robert Morris finished the half on a 13-4 run fueled by nine points from Morton that included a pair of layups over the final 38 seconds to give her team a 40-32 lead at halftime.RMU shot 55.6 percent (15-27) in the frame while limiting the Mount to 39.3 percent (11-28).
A slow start by the Colonials coupled with Mountaineers three-pointers by Ashley Christie and Mary Dunn put the Mount ahead, 41-40, just 2:38 into the games deciding half.
The lead never got to more than three points before Harrison gave RMU a 54-53 lead with a pair of free throws. The freebies started a 19-3 outburst that gave the Colonials a 71-56 lead on junior Mary Durojaye's (London, England / British National U20 Team) lay-up on a Morton assist with just over a minute to play, effectively icing the game.
Robert Morris shot a season-best 85.0 percent (17-20) from the free throw line with eight different players making the trip to the charity stripe. They finished at 44.8 percent (26-58) from the field and held a 42-33 advantage on the glass.
Mount was led by Dunn's game-high 22 points. Guierriero and Mann added 11 points each. The Mountaineers finished at 35.0 percent (21-60) from both the field and three-point range (7-20).
The Colonials cap the regular season at home Monday, Feb. 28, when they host Wagner in a 7:00 p.m. contest at the Sewall Center.
