Moon Township, Pa. / Charles L. Sewall Center-For the first time since February of 2010, the Robert Morris University women's basketball team had two players record a double-double as it defeated Central Connecticut State, 54-51, in a Northeast Conference game at the Charles L. Sewall Center Saturday afternoon. The Colonials improve to 12-9 overall and 9-2 in league games. The Blue Devils slip to 13-8 and 6-5.
Freshman Artemis Spanou (Rhodes, Greece / Greek National Team) had a game-high 17 points and 10 rebounds while junior Mary Durojaye (London, England / British National U-20 Team) scored 12 points and came up with 11 rebounds. The feat was the seventh of the season for Spanou and the sixth for Durojaye.
Senior Destiny Harrison (Niagara Falls, N.Y. / Niagara Falls) had nine points while coming off the bench for the first time this season. Classmate Kristine Silaraja (Ventspils, Latvia / Barton County CC) chipped in with eight points while playing 39 minutes.
Durojaye won the opening tip and scored on a feed by Spanou 14 seconds later to give Robert Morris a lead it would not give up the rest of the way. A short jumper by Spanou staked the Colonials to a 4-0 lead. Holding a 7-5 lead, the Colonials scored six unanswered points, four on Durojaye layups, to take a 13-5 lead nine minutes in. A few CCSU buckets later, four points from senior Yohanna Morton (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic / Dominican National Team) fueled an 8-0 RMU surge that gave them their biggest lead of the night, 23-11, with 4:27 left in the opening stanza.
A Justina Udenze putback, off of one of her game-high 16 rebounds, started an 8-2 stretch for CCSU that ended with two free throws by Kerrianne Dugan. The spurt brought the Blue Devils to within five points before RMU carried a 28-21 lead into the break.
The first three points of the second half belonged to the Colonials as they got out to an 11-point lead. The Blue Devils responded after a timeout, scoring the next six points with a Leanne Crockett trey proving to be the big bucket during the run. Spanou and Jasmine Tate (Columbus, Ohio / Harvest Prep) stemmed the tide, but another Crockett three-ball fueled a 7-0 CCSU surge to bring them within one point, 37-36, with 13:52 to play.
A timely Spanou layup put the Colonials back up three points. Over the next four minutes, Central cut the lead to one point on three occasions, but each time Robert Morris had an answer. Harrison hit a three which was followed by lay-ins from Durojaye and Spanou put the Colonials back up, 50-42, with 6:42 to play. The Blue Devils cut the margin to three points on back-to-back possessions to make it a three-point game, but the visiting squad could never get over the top as RMU held on for the three-point win.
Udenze finished with 12 points as did Gabrielle Oglesby. Crockett chipped in with 10 points.
Robert Morris shot 33.3 percent (20-60) from the field, hitting just 21.1 percent (4-19) on three-point tries. The Blue Devils converted at 32.1 percent (18-56) overall and were exactly the same as the Colonials on three-pointers (4-19). CCSU outrebounded RMU, 49-39.
The Colonials host Bryant this Monday, Feb. 7, in a 7:00 p.m. game at the Sewall Center.
