Norfolk, Va. – Down 47-36 entering the fourth quarter, the Robert Morris University women's basketball team staged a furious comeback to force overtime and then doubled up Norfolk State in the extra frame, earning a 69-62 victory this afternoon in non-conference play at Joseph G. Echols Memorial Hall.
Robert Morris (5-5, 0-0 NEC) fell behind as many as 13 points with 4:33 left in the third quarter, but caught fire from beyond the arc with a perfect 7-for-7 performance over the final 15 minutes. The Colonials improved to 2-0 in overtime this season, previously picking up a 71-68 win at La Salle on Nov. 9.
"It was a hard-working, quality win for this program," said head coach Charlie Buscaglia. "It was a game of adversity – Norfolk State played tremendous and controlled a lot of the game. I'm very proud of our effort to stay mentally strong and embrace the adversity that presented us down the stretch. We had some great servanthood on the floor – not only by knocking down some quality looks, but buckling down and getting some quality stops. It was a team effort today."
Four RMU players reached double-digit scoring, with Nneka Ezeigbo and Honoka Ikematsu sharing high honors at 15 points apiece. Ezeigbo added nine rebounds, four blocks, and three steals in 34 minutes, while Ikematsu went 5-of-7 from the field and 4-of-5 from deep in 20 minutes off the bench.
Isabella Posset matched her season high for points with 14 points, thanks to a 5-of-8 performance from the field and 4-of-5 shooting line on three-pointers. Nina Augustin contributed 13 points, tallying seven of them from the free throw stripe.
The Norfolk State (6-5, 0-0 MEAC) lead reached 51-39 early in the fourth quarter with a Chanette Hicks fastbreak layup, but Posset answered quickly with a three from the wing. After forcing a turnover, the sophomore guard again connected from deep to make it 51-45, but the Spartans' Armani Franklin responded with a trey to make it a nine-point different with 6:45 left in regulation.
Esther Castedo found Irekpitan Ozzy-Momodu for a layup to pull the Colonials within seven, then Posset buried another three two possessions later. The Colonials forced another turnover after the media timeout and followed it up with an Augustin trey to make it 54-53. After a Hicks free throw bumped the gap to two, both teams held serve until the 0:33 mark, when Ezeigbo finished inside to tie it at 55-55.
NSU won the overtime tip, but Ikematsu swung the momentum back to RMU quickly by picking off an errant pass and going coast-to-coast for a layup. Hicks answered with a three-point play to put the Spartans ahead, 58-57, but the Japanese junior guard hit the hosts back with a trifecta to push the Colonials in front.
Ikematsu converted again from deep with 2:49 remaining in overtime to make it 63-58, then Augustin added a technical free throw to extend the gap to six points. NSU could only pull within four from that point, as Ikematsu and Augustin finished off the comeback with three foul shots.
"It's great to go into the (holiday) break with this feeling," added Buscaglia. "It was very important for this team to taste this a little bit here. Now we have to handle it well. The effort on both ends of the floor down the stretch didn't come without mistakes or bad decisions, but we could live with it because how hard we were playing and how much passion we had."
RMU opened the game with a 2-0 lead after the Spartans were assessed an administrative technical foul. One of Ikematsu's four three-pointers came with her non-shooting left hand, as she beat the shot clock with 3:12 left in the first quarter.
Hicks led all scorers with 23 points (7-16 FG, 9-14 FT) for NSU.
The Colonials forced 21 turnovers from the Spartans, their seventh such performance this season of 20 or more caused turnovers.
RMU's three-point conversion rate of 61.1 percent is the fifth highest in program single-game history. The Colonials last hit that mark on Dec. 31, 2017 when they finished 11-of-18 from deep at Sacred Heart.
This was the RMU's first double-digit comeback win since Feb. 17, 2018, when it made up a 10-point third-quarter deficit to defeat Fairleigh Dickinson, 62-49.
Ezeigbo is now seven blocks away from becoming the fourth player in program history to eclipse 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 100 steals, and 100 rejections in a career.
Robert Morris concludes non-conference play with the midpoint of its five-game road trip, as it plays James Madison on Sunday, Dec. 29. The Colonials follow that up with Northeast Conference (NEC) matchups at Central Connecticut and Merrimack before returning to Peoples Court at the UPMC Events Center on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2020 against Wagner.
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