Miami, Fla. – Another late rally fell short for the Robert Morris University women's basketball team this afternoon as the Colonials were unable to claw back from a 11-point fourth quarter hole in a 59-57 defeat to Florida International University in the third-place game of the FIU Thanksgiving Tournament.
Robert Morris (3-4, 0-0 NEC) trailed by as much as 16 points with 1:02 left in the first half and only shot 31.0 percent (9-of-29) from the field over the opening two quarters. That number rose to 40.0 percent (12-of-30) in the second half, thanks in part to a 4-of-6 third quarter performance from beyond the arc.
"We didn't do the job early on and although we fought back hard at the end of the game, we had too many bad moments over the bulk of the first half," said first-year head coach Charlie Buscaglia. "We have to come out with the same kind of energy and passion to start the game. We started and ended the game with two different teams."
The Colonials scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter to trim the deficit to 54-50 before an acrobatic layup from Janka Hegedus stopped a scoring drought of 5:42 for Florida International (1-4, 0-0 C-USA). Freshman forward Nadège Pluviose answered with a bucket on the other end to keep it a four-point game, but Hegedus had another response for a Panthers squad that only tallied five points in the frame.
The rookie from Montreal gave RMU a lift down the stretch, finishing with six points and a team-high eight rebounds. Pluviose took advantage of extended second-half minutes for the Colonials as two of her buckets came while they were making their push in the fourth quarter.
"There are very few bright spots when you don't play the way you're capable of, but when the game was over I made sure to let her [Nadège] know how proud I was of her," said Buscaglia. "I was proud of how hard she pushed down the stretch for us, and how much tougher and more confident she looked on the floor today."
Smith again pulled RMU within four with a pair of free throws, but the visitors were stopped from making it a one-possession game on their next trip down the floor. After Kristian Hudson split a couple of foul shots, senior guard Janee Brown grabbed an offensive board and canned a three-pointer with 4.2 seconds remaining to make it 59-57. However, FIU inbounded the ball out of a timeout and avoided getting fouled to seal the victory.
The hosts found themselves down late in the first quarter before a trifecta from Kiandre'a Pound made it 15-14. That momentum carried over into the second frame as the Panthers shot 54.5 percent (6-of-11) from the floor and sank nine of 10 free throws to expand a one-point edge into 16 with 1:02 left in the half. The Colonials stopped the bleeding just before the buzzer with a three-pointer from Rebeca Navarro to set the halftime score at 38-25.
"We have to hold ourselves accountable and mentally prepare ourselves to come out of the locker room," said Buscaglia. "As the season goes on, you have experiences that you can learn from. We're getting experience now in these moments; it's our job to respond."
Smith and Navarro shared high scorer honors for RMU with 11 points each. The junior forward was named to the All-Tournament Team after the game, joining Stetson's Brianti Saunders and Breana Bey, Weber State's Jocelyn Adams and Deeshyra Thomas, and FIU's Alexis Gordon.
"Megan wants to be a go-to player and she works hard to be just that," said Buscaglia. "Friday [against Stetson], she did a great job of being a steady force inside and outside, and although today things didn't seem to go her way throughout the game, she brought a lot of intensity, fire, and passion and I appreciated that. We just have to keep that in control and keep her out of foul trouble."
Smith scored 32 points on 13-of-17 shooting over the two games and added 14 rebounds and four blocks.
Robert Morris concludes its six-game road swing on Thursday, Dec. 1 at 7:00 p.m. against Delaware.
