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Blacksburg, Va. / Cassell Coliseum — The last time the Robert Morris University women's basketball team played at Virginia Tech, it pulled off a stunning 14-point upset. Sunday, the Colonials nearly did it again. Robert Morris (4-7) held a two-point lead with under four minutes to play before eventually falling to the host Hokies (10-2), 70-64, at Cassell Coliseum Sunday afternoon.
 
Freshman guard Anna Niki Stamolamprou (Thessaloniki, Greece / Aristotelio College of Thessaloniki) led all players with 18 points. She was 7-of-14 from the field and drilled three three-pointers. Senior forward Artemis Spanou (Rhodes, Greece / Nea Smyrni) and sophomore guard Ashley Ravelli (Milano, Italy / The Hun School) each chipped in with 13 points. Spanou also added eight rebounds.
 
"I'm very proud of our players with the way we competed in a hostile environment against a 10-2 ACC team," said RMU head coach Sal Buscaglia. "We're such a young team.With only two players having more than one year of experience, we have to learn how to finish games after having the lead with less than four minutes to go. I'm sure some of the players on Virginia Tech's team remembered three years ago when we beat them here. Today was great preparation for conference play and we need to keep up our focus and energy for this first weekend of conference games."
 
The Hokies took a three-point halftime lead and pushed the margin to eight points, 43-35, when Monet Tellier scored two of her team-high 16 points with 15:20 left in the second half. A steal by Cassie Oursler (Grand Island, N.Y. / Grand Island) led to a lay-up by Ravelli on the other end. That play started an 8-0 surge and ended with Stamolamprou tying the game, 43-43, on a driving lay-up from a fast break.
 
Virginia Tech reacted with six straight points, but again Robert Morris found the answer. This time, Ravelli buried a three-pointer and Spanou connected twice from the charity stripe to knot the game, 54-54. The Colonials took the lead, 57-56, when Stamolamprou knocked down a trey with 4:53 to go.
 
The Hokies briefly regained the edge, but Ravelli hit three shots from the charity stripe and RMU had its biggest lead, 60-58, with 3:58 to play. The Hokies, however, tightened up defensively and held Robert Morris off the board for nearly two minutes. The host team knocked down seven free throws over the final two minutes to pull off a 70-64 win.
 
From the opening tip, Virginia Tech jumped out to a 6-0 lead scoring on its first three trips down the court. The Colonials battled back to tie the game at 15-15 when Mataly and Spanou hit back-to-back three-pointers midway through the opening 20 minutes.
 
Another 6-0 run and the Hokies were back on top. The host squad would take its biggest lead of the game, 31-21, with 4:49 showing. The Colonials, powered by four points from Spanou, a lay-in by Stamolamprou and a Mataly three-pointer finished the half on a 10-3 run to make it 34-31 at the break.
 
The Colonials turn their attention to the Northeast Conference when they take on Central Connecticut State in a 1:00 p.m. game Saturday, January 4, in New Britain, Conn.