San Luis Obispo, Calif. – Despite a career-high 20 points from Jocelynne Jones, the Robert Morris University women's basketball team fell to San Francisco, 57-45, this afternoon in the Colonials' final game of the ShareSLO Holiday Beach Classic.
After besting host Cal Poly a day earlier, Robert Morris (2-3, 0-0 NEC) fell behind San Francisco (2-2, 0-0 WCC) early and never recovered. The Colonials shot just 30.5 percent (18-59) from the floor and 23.1 percent (3-13) on three-pointers, with Jones' 20-point effort making her the lone RMU player in double-figures scoring.
"(San Francisco) played really well – they're a well-coached team," said head coach Charlie Buscaglia. "We knew what we were up against. They're very tough and physical, and were a tough matchup today."
Jones eclipsed her previous best in the first half, scoring 14 of her 20 points over the opening 20 minutes. The senior forward added two steals in 29 minutes and now sits at 99 for her career. With her next steal, Jones will become the 16th player in program history to reach 100 career steals.
The center duo of Mikalah Mulrain and Nneka Ezeigbo combined for 14 points and 11 rebounds. Mulrain scored all eight of her points in the second half, while Ezeigbo tallied a pair of blocks and three steals to go along with her six points and five caroms.
The Dons jumped out to an early 14-2 lead, thanks to five points from Michaela Rakova and four from Bec Black. RMU closed the quarter strong, however, as two Megan Smith layups and a Jones jumper made it 14-6 through 10 minutes. The Colonials added another 6-0 run during the middle of the second quarter to make it 23-17, and cut the deficit to six once more on a Mulrain layup with 7:27 left in the third frame, but that's as close as they would make it.
"There's always positives," said Buscaglia. "We got down early and they were obviously flying around doing good things, while we were struggling to put the ball in the hole. We kept clawing and fighting, and that's really important to me. There's things we have to improve on and things we have to fix, but the positive things were that we kept fighting, made some runs, and cut into their lead. We got to a lot of loose balls and were hustling, even though we played yesterday.
"We had three games on the road and took two of them. I saw that the heart and the fight is there. It comes out sometimes more than other times. We're very driven on our faith as a team to stay together and keep working through adversity, and that's what we have to do right now."
Rakova led the Dons with 15 points and eight rebounds.
Ezeigbo and Jones represented the Colonials on the All-Tournament Team. Ezeigbo collected 21 points, 15 rebounds, six steals, and four blocks over the two games, while Jones totaled 28 points, seven rebounds, and four steals on the weekend.
Robert Morris returns home for five of its next six games, beginning with a 7:00 p.m. opening tip on Wednesday, Nov. 30 against Youngstown State.
