Loretto, Pa. – The Robert Morris University women's basketball team made five more shots from the field and outrebounded Saint Francis University by 14 but still came up on the short end a 62-54 game at DeGol Arena in Loretto, Pa., Saturday afternoon. The loss is the third straight for a Colonials team that slips to 11-9 overall and 5-4 in the Northeast Conference. The Red Flash move to 8-12 and 6-3 in league games.
 
"I think we gave a really good effort on the defensive end holding them to 24 percent in the second half and held them well below their scoring average," said RMU head coach Sal Buscaglia. "I guess we have to be more aggressive going to the basket and drawing fouls. We hit five more shots than them from the field, but they went to the line 35 times and we went 12. I guess we have to make more of an effort to get to the line and we also committed too many fouls 90 feet from the basket. We just need to continue to work and start feeling better about ourselves, and the only way to make that happen is to win. That's what we intend to do on Monday."
 
Neither team shot well from the field – a combined 30 percent from the field – but the Red Flash went 27-of-35 (77.1 %) from the chalk and the Colonials were 8-of-12. Robert Morris took 21 more shots from the field than Saint Francis thanks to 23 offensive rebounds. Mikalah Mulrain and Megan Smith each had 12 rebounds, that number representing a career high for Smith.
 
The Colonials jumped ahead, 5-2, on a Lou Mataly three-pointer but would not hit from the field again for the next six minutes. The Red Flash took advantage with a 10-0 run that was snapped with a pair of free throws by Janee Brown. An old-fashioned three-point play by Leah Wormack end the RMU drought from the field and made it an 18-12 game at the end of the first quarter.
  
Another five-minute drought from the Colonials allowed Saint Francis to stretch their lead to 23-12 with a 5-0 push that ended with a Madison Johnson free throw. Back-to-back jumpers by Rebeca Navarro and Anna Niki Stamolamprou brought the margin to seven points before foul trouble caught up to the Colonials. Wormack, Brown and Stamolamprou were all saddled with their third foul in the second quarter.  The Red Flash went 6-8 from the charity stripe in the second frame and an Aisha Brock three-pointer gave the home squad a 33-21 lead at halftime.
 
Maya Wynn hit a jumper to give the Red Flash a 42-31 lead with 4:24 left in the third quarter. The Colonials defense clamped down at that point holding Saint Francis without a field goal for the next nine minutes. A dish by Mataly gave Wormack a lay-up and ended a 10-1 run by the Colonials that made it a two-point game with 7:41 left in regulation.
 
Samiah Bethel scored on a fast-break lay-in to push the lead back to four, but Stamolamprou answered with a three to cut the margin to just one point. The next five points, however, all went to the Red Flash and they would finish the game on an 11-5 surge to take a 62-54 win.
 
Robert Morris finishes a four-game road trip by traveling to Mount St. Mary's for a 7:00 p.m. game Monday, Feb. 1, at Knott Arena.