Los Angeles, Calif. – In what was a tale of two halves, the Robert Morris University women's basketball team fell in the third-place game of the Loyola Marymount Thanksgiving Tournament to the host Lions, 61-53, this afternoon from Gersten Pavilion.
Robert Morris (1-5, 0-0 NEC) jumped out to a 19-10 lead after one and carried a 33-29 edge into the half, but Loyola Marymount (4-1, 0-0 WCC) answered with a 13-4 difference following the break to ultimately take control of the game. The Colonials managed to keep its streak of forcing 20 or more turnovers, extending it to four games as the Lions committed 25.
"This was one of our hardest fought efforts I've been around in a long time," said head coach Charlie Buscaglia. "I'm very proud of the team for how hard we battled for 40 minutes. Mistakes were made, LMU played a really good game and gave us their best. We gave them our best, just came up a little bit short but it wasn't due to effort. We'll just continue to work hard to get better."
Neither side gave an inch over the opening six minutes, as the teams traded the lead three times and managed a trio of deadlocks. Irekpitan Ozzy-Momodu's hook shot with 4:02 to go put RMU ahead, 9-8, followed by seven straight scoreless possessions. An offensive rebound by Natalie Villaflor set up her former AAU teammate Megan Callahan for a trifecta, and carried the visitors on a 7-2 run to end the frame.
Nia Adams halted a quick 4-0 stretch by freeing herself for a layup on an in-bounds play, making it 21-14 with 7:55 left in the half. LMU answered with six of the next nine points to pull within four, but Isabella Posset and Ozzy-Momodu provided buckets on back-to-back possessions to extend the Colonial advantage to 28-20. That lead returned to seven points later in the frame following a Nina Augustin trey and two free throws from Esther Castedo, but Chelsey Gipson drilled a three with seven seconds on the clock to set the halftime score at 33-29.
"Any time you can make a run against a quality opponent (like LMU) – a team that beat UCLA and Arizona – and control a lot of the game and lead, that meant a lot for this team," added Buscaglia.
Gipson's three-pointer seemed to shift the tide in favor of the hosts. After two Augustin free throws pushed the gap back to four points, a jumper from Bree Alford and Gipson trey gave LMU its first lead since the opening stanza. The Lions continued their run with layups from Raychel Stanley and Jasmine Jones, making it 42-37 after three quarters.
RMU broke a scoreless drought of eight minutes with a Callahan three to begin the fourth quarter. The Lions extended the difference to six with a 6-2 run, then Callahan tickled the twine once more to pull the Colonials within three at 48-45.
After Jasmine Jones scored five of the game's next seven points, a drive by Nneka Ezeigbo and Posset jumper made it a two-point game with 2:31 remaining. Gipson answered with a big three-pointer later in the shot clock, only for Ezeigbo to find another bucket in the paint. Jones continued her stellar fourth quarter with another layup, then a steal and score by Andee Velsaco sealed the game with 1:11 on the clock.
"We can take that our effort and passion is going to determine a lot of our success," said Buscaglia. "You give yourself the best chance to win when you go out there and work hard. We didn't hit from the outside as well as we wanted, nor did we shoot at the percentage. We missed a lot of good looks over the two games, but we'll go forward knowing our work ethic has to continue to grow and get better."
Ezeigbo led RMU with a season-high 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting, adding six rebounds (four offensive) and a pair of steals. The junior center averaged 13.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks over the two games, and converted 57.9 percent of her field goals along with a perfect 4-of-4 effort from the free throw stripe.
"(Nneka's) performance was an A performance," said Buscaglia. "We challenged her after yesterday's game that she had a good second half, but didn't start well, that she would come out today and be consistent and steady. I'm very proud of her for how she responded."
Callahan added 12 points for the Colonials, her third consecutive double-digit scoring effort.
Gipson led all scorers with 21 points for LMU, while Jones tallied 18.
SMU won the tournament title over Northern Arizona later in the afternoon, 55-48. Ezeigbo was named to the All-Tournament Team – the second straight season she's done so at a Thanksgiving tournament – along with Amber Bacon and Alicia Froling of SMU, Gipson of LMU, and Kaleigh Paplow of NAU.
Robert Morris concludes a four-game road swing on Sunday, Dec. 3 at 3:00 p.m. when it travels to Iowa.
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