Moon Township, Pa. / Charles L. Sewall Center - The Robert Morris University women's basketball team jumped all over Central Connecticut State early en route to a 65-48 victory in the Northeast Conference opener for both teams at the Charles L. Sewall Center Saturday afternoon. Freshman Lou Mataly (Toulouse, France / Lycee-Bellevue) scored a career-best 19 points to move the Colonials to 2-10 on the year and 1-0 in league play. The Blue Devils record evens at 6-6 and they slip to 0-1 in the NEC.

Mataly nailed five of her nine three-point attempts and finished 7-of-11 overall. She also came up with three steals and pulled down four rebounds. Junior Artemis Spanou (Rhodes, Greece / Nea Smyrni) earned her seventh consecutive double-double by scoring 16 points and grabbing 14 rebounds, six of those on the offensive end of the floor.

"This was a great way to start conference play," said RMU head coach Sal Buscaglia. "Everyone contributed and that was nice to see. You can certainly define it as a team effort. The biggest thing that we did today was fight through the fatigue. That's something I'm proud of and that's something we will have to continue to do with our limited roster."

After a sloppy start by both teams, the Colonials got back-to-back treys from Mataly followed by one from freshman Ashley Ravelli (Milan, Italy / The Hun School) that put RMU on top, 9-3, just 3:46 into the game. That's as close as the Blue Devils would get the rest of the way. An 8-0 run that featured three different scorers - including an old-fashioned three-point play by junior Anna Kavasila (Cholargos, Greece / Glyfada) - gave the Colonials a 19-6 lead with 11:26 remaining in the opening half.

The lead never again dropped to single digits as Robert Morris pushed the margin to as much as 17 points on a Ravelli jumper. The Colonials held the Blue Devils to just 27.3 percent (6-22) shooting in the opening frame to race to a 34-20 lead at the break.

RMU slowed down slightly in the second half, but still managed to use a 7-0 run that saw three different players score as it stretched its lead to 63-42 with just 1:42 left to play.

Lauren Arbogast went 6-of-12 off the bench to lead Central Connecticut State with 15 points. She added six rebounds. No other Blue Devil reached double digits although Jaclyn Babe did score nine points on 4-of-14 shooting.

Robert Morris outrebounded its NEC foe 49-38 and came away with 22 offensive boards that resulted in 18 second chance points.

The Colonials look to secure their third consecutive victory when its hosts Bryant in a 10:00 a.m. game Monday, January 7.