Moon Township, Pa. – Defense again told the story for the Robert Morris University women's basketball team this afternoon as the Colonials forced a season-high 27 turnovers in a 56-38 victory over Monmouth from the North Athletic Complex.
In what was the 60th meeting between former Northeast Conference (NEC) foes, Monmouth (2-6, 0-0 MAAC) became the third Robert Morris (4-3, 0-0 NEC) opponent since 2016-17 to be held under 40 points. The 27 forced turnovers were the Colonials' most since Jan. 21 of this year, when they forced 29 in a 62-46 win over Bryant.
"We were out of rhythm offensively today," said head coach Charlie Buscaglia. "I love winning these kind of games, though. Things didn't seem to flow real well for us, which made today a real grind. The accountability in our defense is what helped us win this game. We held (Monmouth) to 38 points and turned them over 27 times – that's all on defensive effort."
Nneka Ezeigbo came off the bench to score a team-high 12 points in 16 minutes. Megan Smith nearly posted the fifth double-double of her career, tallying 11 points and nine rebounds in her 100th career start. Jocelynne Jones was also in double-figures for the third consecutive game, collecting 10 points.
"Megan got after it really well for us today, especially in the second half," said Buscaglia. "I give her a lot of credit for continuing to grind. Sometimes she won't show up big on the scoresheet, but down the stretch she took a lot of charges on the defensive end. She's going to have games where she shoots it well and gets a lot of looks, but today she did what she could when she had to."
The lead traded hands all through the first quarter before a Honoka Ikematsu jumper put the hosts ahead, 10-9. Ezeigbo then took over in the second quarter, scoring 10 straight points for RMU to push its lead to 20-11. The Hawks rallied to trim the deficit to four with 4:14 left in the half on a Kayla Quintana layup, but the Colonials responded with treys from Megan Callahan and Jocelynne Jones and an Ikematsu jumper to make it 30-18 at halftime.
Monmouth used its press to chip away at the gap, pulling within five after starting the third quarter on a 9-2 run. Smith halted the stretch with a three-pointer and layup, swinging the momentum back in the hosts' favor so that the lead would hold between nine and 11 points for the remainder of the stanza.
The Hawks gave it one last gasp by making it 46-38 with a pair of Spooner-Knight free throws. However, those would be Monmouth's last points as RMU held the visitors scoreless over the final 7:20 to secure its fourth win over the last five games.
Kayla Shaw led all scorers with 19 points.
The Colonials tallied 11 steals on the afternoon, with a team-high four coming from Laura Carrasco. Jones added three after eclipsing 100 for her career against Youngstown State, while Ikematsu collected a pair.
Smith is the fourth player in program history to start 100 games, joining former teammates Ashley Ravelli (2012-16) and Anna Niki Stamolamprou (2013-17) along with two-time NEC Player of the Year Artemis Spanou (2010-14).
Robert Morris plays its final road non-conference contest on Wednesday, Dec. 6 at 5:30 p.m. against Delaware State.
