Moon Township, Pa. – The Robert Morris University women's basketball team continued its strong start to the 2017-18 season, picking up another double-digit victory as the Colonials defeated Lafayette, 63-42, this afternoon from the North Athletic Complex.
Now with six out-of-league wins, Robert Morris (6-3, 0-0 NEC) needs one more to tie its school record of seven set by the 1986-87 team. The Colonials are currently riding a four-game winning streak – defeating teams by an average of 23.5 points during this stretch – and have won six of the last seven contests.
Nneka Ezeigbo fell a rebound shy of her third career double-double, but she still paced all players with 12 points (4-8 FG) and nine caroms in just 16 minutes. Megan Smith added 11 points on 5-of-10 shooting, inching her closer to the 1,000-point club. She now is 31 points away from reaching four figures, where she would become just the 23rd player in program history to tally 1,000 for her career.
"We were working really hard but weren't completely in rhythm offensively," said head coach Charlie Buscaglia. "But it was a blue-collar, grind-it-out kind of game and I love those. If you keep defending, working hard, and serve each other, good things will happen and that's how we were able to come away with this win."
After Shakema Dashiell beat the halftime buzzer with a corner trey, RMU used that momentum to score seven of the third quarter's opening 10 points, upping its advantage to 33-23. That forced a timeout out of Lafayette (3-6, 0-0 PL), which was followed by a pair of buckets out of the break by Olivia Martino. The Colonials then called their own timeout as their lead was trimmed to 33-27, but they responded with a Smith layup and three-pointer by Nina Augustin to regain the double-digit difference.
RMU put the game away in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter. Nadège Pluviose found Honoka Ikematsu for a three-pointer on the hosts' second possession to make it 50-36, then Mikalah Mulrain split a pair of free throws. Ikematsu followed that up by swiping the ball from Alexis Santarelli before pulling up for a jumper on the fastbreak, pushing the advantage to 53-36 with 6:59 left.
The Leopards entered this matchup with a defense that had been ranked 10th nationally in field goal percentage (.328) and 37th in points per game (56.8), but the Colonials surpassed those marks with 63 points on 42 percent (21-50) shooting.
Lafayette did not have a player in double-figures scoring as its high scorer was Drew Freeland with seven points. RMU forced the visitors into 18 turnovers, with half of those coming off steals.
"We did a good job at tracing the ball," said Buscaglia. "Once we started to get into a flow and pushing the ball, I could see our energy going up. We kept getting better as the game went on and closed the fourth quarter really well."
Mulrain added nine points (3-3 FG, 3-6 FT) and four rebounds for the Colonials. She is 12 caroms shy of becoming the 22nd player in school history to reach 500 career rebounds.
Robert Morris continues a three-game home stand next Saturday, Dec. 16 at 1:00 p.m. when it hosts Clarion.
