Iowa City, Iowa / Carver-Hawkeye Arena - The Robert Morris University women's basketball team put a scare into the Iowa Hawkeyes at Carver-Hawkeye Arena Tuesday night before falling to the Big 10-member, 58-44.

RMU made up for cold shooting by playing stifling defense that forced the Hawkeyes into 18 turnovers. The Colonials slip to 0-4 on the year while Iowa, who has opened with five consecutive home games, improve to 4-1.

"Each and every game I am getting more and more proud of this team," said RMU head coach Sal Buscaglia. "Our record might not show it, but we are improving every game. Going up against high-caliber competition like Big 10 member Iowa, a team that just played for the Preseason WNIT Championship, is going to help us in the long run.

"If we could find a way to push through fatigue and not have the long scoreless droughts, I think the future this year is very bright."

Freshman Lou Mataly (Toulouse, France / Lycee-Bellevue) finished with a season-high 13 points to lead Robert Morris as she went 3-of-7 from three-point range. Senior forward Anna Gailite (Riga, Latvia / Riga Secondary #47) tacked on 10 points and moved into second-place at RMU in blocks. She had two blocks on the night and now has 116 in her career.

Junior Artemis Spanou (Rhodes, Greece / Nea Smyrni) tied her career-high with 16 rebounds and became the 19th player in team history to reach the 1,000-point plateau. She finished with nine points and joined the 1K club with a long three-pointer early in the second half.

After the Hawkeyes hit a three-pointer to open the game, Gailite drained a pair of long two-pointers and Ashley Ravelli (Milano, France / The Hun School) drilled a three to give RMU a 7-5 lead. Robert Morris pushed the lead to 13-8 with 12:28 play in the opening half as Spanou hit a step-back trey.

That would be the last field goal for over nine minutes for the Colonials, but tough defense kept them within striking distance at 20-15 when Mataly got a steal and lay-in at the 3:13 mark. The Colonials finished the half on a 7-3 surge as Mataly hit a three and Tate scored a lay-in off a nice inbound pass by Ravelli.

The Hawkeyes opened the game up by scoring the first eight points of the second half to push the margin to 31-20. A putback by Gailite stemmed the tide, but Iowa would continue their hot second half start pushing the lead to 40-24 with 12:41 to play.

The Colonials continued to pressure the Hawkeyes and went on an 8-0 run to cut the lead to 40-32 with 8:40 to play. Mataly hit a three-pointer to spark the surge and Spanou hit four freebies during the run. Defensively, RMU held the Hawkeyes without a point over a five minute stretch.

Iowa, however, would finally figure the tough Robert Morris zone and were able to push the margin to 58-44 at the final horn.

Robert Morris held Iowa to 38.6 percent shooting but managed to shoot just 28.3 percent themselves. The Hawkeyes held the rebounding edge, 44-34.

The Colonials return to the hardwood this Sunday, November 25, when they travel to East Lansing, Mich., to take on the Michigan State Spartans in a 4:00 p.m. contest.