Moon Township, Pa. / Charles L. Sewall Center-Sophomore Artemis Spanou (Rhodes, Greece / Nea Smyrni (Greek National
Team)) recorded her 17th double-double of the year while leading the
Robert Morris University women's basketball team to a 72-68 win over Bryant
University Monday night at the Charles L. Sewall Center. The win was the fourth
straight for the Colonials who improve to 16-11 overall and 10-6 in Northeast
Conference play. The Bulldogs slip to 13-14 and 6-10 in league play.
Bryant got its first five points of the second half on
free throws, tying the contest at 43-43 after trailing the Colonials 41-38 at
the break. Each team would come up empty on its next two trips down the floor,
but Briannica Tye (Aurora, Ill. / West Aurora (Mineral Area)) hit a long jumper
and buried a three-pointer from the left wing to start and 11-4 run. The junior
finished off the run as well, twice finding classmate April Williams (Bronx,
N.Y. / Murry Bergtraum (Monroe College)) for lay-ups that gave RMU a 54-47
lead.
RMU went cold again, failing to make a field goal for an
eight-minute span with its only point from 14:05 to 6:20 coming on a free throw
by Tye. The team continued to work on the defensive end, however, allowing
Bryant just seven points during that span as the lead dwindled to 57-55 with
7:20 to play.
The Colonials rebuilt the lead to eight points as Spanou
and Josette Campbell (London, England / Notre Dame Prep (NW Florida State))
combined to outscore the visitors, 9-3, over the next five minutes.
The lead remained at eight points with 27 seconds to
play, but some untimely calls, including a technical foul, allowed Bryant to crawl
back to within two points, 70-68, with 4.3 seconds left on the clock. Spanou
was fouled on the following in-bounds play and buried both freebies to put the
game out of reach with 1.4 seconds left.
The first half of play featured six ties and seven lead
changes as Bryant took advantage of second chance opportunities and Campbell
started burying three-pointers. A 6-0 run gave the Bulldogs their biggest lead
of the game, 12-7, just over six minutes into the game. The Colonials responded
with a 9-0 run. Robert Morris pushed the lead to eight points on a Williams
three-pointer, but a Steph Cardamone trey powered a Bryant run that tied the
score with 4:04 left before the break. Campbell then hit three three-pointers
and Tye added one over the final 2:45 of the half to send RMU into the locker
room holding a 31-28 lead.
Spanou finished the game with 24 points and 15 rebounds
and did not turn the ball over. She went 9-of-12 from the line while Robert
Morris continued its hot shooting from the charity stripe. The Colonials are
82-95 (.863) on free throws over the last four games. Campbell had a
career-best 19 points and led all players with four steals.
Williams chipped in with 11 points and Tye added 13 plus
eight assists. Junior Anna Gailite (Riga, Latvia / Riga Secondary #47) had
another strong defensive game, tallying four blocks and grabbed a season-high
seven rebounds.
Katie Whittington had 15 points to lead Bryant. Naana
Ankoma-Mensa had 13 points and 13 boards while Courtney Schissler also had 13
points.
The Colonials play their only TV game of the season Saturday,
Feb. 25, at Quinnipiac. Tip-off for the game on ESPN3 is slated for 1:30 p.m.
