Hackensack, N.J. – It was a tale of two halves at Stratis Arena Saturday afternoon as the Robert Morris University women's basketball survived a Fairleigh Dickinson Knights comeback for a 69-68 Northeast Conference victory. The win is the eighth straight for a Colonials team that evens its season record at 11-11 and improves to 9-2 in league games.
 
The Colonials were led by 19 points apiece from sophomore Anna Niki Stamolamprou and freshman Megan Smith. Stamolamprou did her damage in the first half with 15 points, all on three-pointers. Smith poured in nine points in the second half, tying her season-best with 19 points.

"It was two extremes for us - an outstanding first half where we scored and defended and then a tough second half where we didn't score or defend," said 12th year RMU head coach Sal Buscaglia. "I was hoping that we would have learned from the past, both in our non-conference and conference games, that we have to learn how to finish games, but we still have a lot of work to do in this area."
 
Robert Morris fell behind early, 6-2, but the Fairleigh Dickinson (6-15, 2-7 NEC) lead was short-lived. Stamolamprou and the rest of the RMU shooters found their stroke, going on a 20-4 run over a seven minute stretch. Stamolamprou was 4-4 during the surge, all three-pointers, and RMU was 7-for-12 as a team. A lay-in by Mikalah Mulrain on a nice dump down pass from Jocelynne Jones put the Colonials on top, 25-12, with 9:38 left in the first half.
 
Fairleigh Dickinson, powered by 19 first half points from Erika Livermore, trimmed the lead to as few as seven points with 4:12 to go in the frame. But another big run, 14-2, was fueled by seven points from Smith and helped the Colonials carry a 46-28 lead into halftime.
 
The Colonials shot 60% (18-30) in the first half, including 69.2% (9-13) on three-pointers.
 
The second half followed a different script. The Knights came out of the break by going on an 11-2 run that quickly cut an 18-point halftime margin to single digits. A 5-0 run featuring a Smith three-pointer and a pair of free throws from Janee Brown put the RMU lead back to 13 points, 58-45, with 10:39 to play.
 
But FDU scored the next eight points as a Livermore lay-in cut the margin to 58-53. Again, the Colonials stemmed the tide with a Mulrain lay-up off a Smith feed followed by Mulrain's second blocked shot of the game leading to a transition three-pointer from Ashley Ravelli that put the lead back to 10 points.
 
The Knights launched a 13-4 run ignited Tiffany Grant's three-pointer with 5:53 to play. RMU watched its lead shrink to two points with 2:34 to go when Kelsey Cruz drilled a trey from the left wing. Ravelli, however, would knock down a pair of free throws to make it a two possession game. Livermore finished off a three-point play on the following possession, but neither team would convert in the final 97 seconds as the Colonials held on for the one-point victory.
 
The Colonials travel to Brooklyn, N.Y., Monday February 9 to take on the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds in a 7:00 p.m. game at the Steinberg Wellness Center.