Moon Township, Pa. – The Robert Morris University women's basketball team fell in its non-conference finale to James Madison, 59-36, this afternoon from the North Athletic Complex.
Robert Morris (3-8, 0-0 NEC) managed to force 23 turnovers out of James Madison (8-3, 0-0 CAA), but couldn't come up with much on the offensive end, converting just 22.6 percent (12-53) of its field goal attempts. The Colonials also were outdone on the glass, pulling down 29 caroms to the Dukes' 50.
"We didn't play well today, offensively especially," said head coach Charlie Buscaglia. "We lost some energy down the stretch as the lead grew, but defensively we were decent. Offensively, we held ourselves back a lot, didn't play with a good pace, and weren't ready to mix it up inside. We have to be much better than this. James Madison has a strong program, always a Top 50 type of team and beat a lot of Power 5 (teams), but we had to be a lot better today in order to win this game."
RMU's best stretch of the game came in the second quarter, where it doubled up JMU, 12-6. Two Devon Merritt free throws and a Kamiah Smalls jumper gave the Dukes a 21-4 lead, a gap the Colonials could only trim to 15 before the media timeout. Following the break, Irekpitan Ozzy-Momodu sunk a pair from the stripe and Isabella Posset slipped through for a layup to make it 23-12. Nadège Pluviose then banked one off the glass and Nia Adams made two free throws to set the halftime tally at 23-16.
Out of the halftime break, the Dukes quickly extended their gap from seven to 14 and kept it at double digits for the remainder of the contest.
Pluviose, Adams, and Ozzy-Momodu all scored a team-high six points. Smalls led JMU with 17 points (7-10 FG), while Kayla Cooper-Williams posted a 12-point, 17-rebound double-double.
Robert Morris, winners of the last two Northeast Conference (NEC) regular-season titles, begins league play on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019 at 1:00 p.m. when it hosts Mount St. Mary's.
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