Moon Township, Pa. – Faced with an early nine-point deficit, the Robert Morris University women's basketball team used a well called timeout to storm back for a 68-59 win over Fairleigh Dickinson University in a Northeast Conference Tournament quarterfinal game at the Charles L. Sewall Center. The third-seeded Colonials improve to 18-12 on the year and will travel to #2 Bryant for a 7:00 p.m. game Wednesday, March 6. The Bulldogs advanced to the semifinal round courtesy of a 70-56 win against LIU Brooklyn.
 
"I'm so proud of these young ladies. We had some bumps in the road this season, but we stayed together as a team and I told them 'We're never going to give up'," said 13th year RMU head coach Sal Buscaglia. "Today we started off slowly, but we certainly bounced back quickly, went on a real good run after that. All the credit to these young ladies – we've really grown as a team. We didn't finish the game as strongly as we wanted to, but in between the beginning and end, we played really good."
 
Junior guard Anna Niki Stamolamprou, an All-Northeast Conference Second Team selection, finished with a season-high 24 points. She added six rebounds, six assists and three steals to her stat line. Lou Mataly added 10 points on a perfect shooting game in which she went 3-for-3 from the field, including a pair of treys, and was 2-2 from the chalk. A total of 10 Colonials scored, the 11th time this season that at least 10 have scored in a game.



Fairleigh Dickinson (11-21) went on a 10-0 run early in the first quarter, building a 14-5 lead when Kiana Brown buried a trey with 3:59 in the opening frame. The Colonials called a timeout at that point, and immediately responded.
 
After the stoppage, Stamolamprou found Megan Smith, who had six points and nine rebounds, to start a 20-4 run that featured scoring from six players. The Colonials scored seven straight before FDU got the final bucket of the opening quarter to give the visiting team a 16-12 lead.
 
Robert Morris then reeled off eight straight to start the second quarter, including four from Mikalah Mulrain, to regain the lead. An Anastasia Williams jumper briefly stopped the run, but Smith followed with a jumper and Stamolamprou buried a three to put the Colonials on top, 25-18, with 3:34 left in the half. RMU would head into the break carrying a 31-25 lead.
 
Fairleigh Dickinson tried to make the game interesting in the third quarter behind the quick strike capabilities of Kelsey Cruz. She scored seven of her team-high 18 points in a three-minute stretch of the third quarter, powering an 8-3 run that pulled the Knights to within three points. But Stamolamprou answered with a trey before Nia Adams came up with a steal and lay-in to quickly return the lead to eight points.
 
The Knights would not get closer than that the rest of the way. Stamolamprou scored seven points in a two-minute stretch, including four from the chalk, to help RMU to a game-high 16-point lead, 64-48, with 1:24 left in regulation.
 
Notes: With four three-pointers, Anna Niki Stamolamprou moved into second all-time at RMU with 206 career treys ... The victory was the 18th NEC Tournament victory for Buscaglia, increasing his league record for post-season wins … RMU is now 17-2 in home NEC playoff games … The Colonials are 7-0 all-time against six seeds in the tourney … Robert Morris is 132-38 (.776) at home since the 2004-05 season.