Moon Township, Pa. – The Robert Morris University women's basketball team closed out the regular season in style, picking up a wire-to-wire 66-53 victory over in-state rival Saint Francis U this evening from the North Athletic Complex.
With already the top seed in next week's Northeast Conference (NEC) Tournament locked up, Robert Morris (19-10, 16-2 NEC) didn't let off the gas in its regular-season finale, completing a season sweep of Saint Francis U (14-16, 11-7 NEC) for the first time since the 2011-12 season. The Colonials tied a school record with 13 three-pointers made – which has now been done four times, last on Jan. 17, 2015 against St. Francis Brooklyn – and held the Red Flash to 30.4 percent (17-56 FG) shooting and 29.2 percent (7-24 3PT) from beyond the arc.
"It's that time of the year. I've been telling the team that when March comes around, teams don't give up," said head coach Charlie Buscaglia. "They're well coached, Susan (Robinson Fruchtl) knows what she's doing. She did a lot of things to bother us, and it was great for us – win or lose – to get that look and find ways where we have to get better. They forced us to shoot from the outside a lot, but we were able to pull away in the end and made some great individual plays that we need to make. As we got our chances, we made the most of them."
After suffering one of its worst shooting performances of the season Monday at Sacred Heart, RMU bounced back by starting tonight on an 11-0 run. Nina Augustin – who had a career-high 18 points in the teams' first meeting – drilled threes on back-to-back possessions to give the Colonials an early advantage, then Isabella Posset canned a trey of her own. After a SFU timeout, Nadège Pluviose buried a jumper off an Augustin feed to make it 11-0, with Haley Thomas finally getting the Red Flash on the board with 4:44 remaining in the frame.
RMU pushed its lead to 25-11 midway through the second quarter with a 9-2 run, thanks to three-pointers by Esther Castedo, Laura Carrasco, and Honoka Ikematsu. The Red Flash pulled within seven late in the frame with a Thomas layup, but Ikematsu sank a deep three to regain the double-digit lead at 32-22.
After Posset's back-to-back threes made it 38-22 early in the third quarter, SFU responded with a 15-3 rally to pull within four. Posset broke the dry spell with two free throws, which were answered by an Aunesha Williams layup. Castedo then drilled a three and Nneka Ezeigbo finished inside, sandwiching a Jess Kovatch layup to set the score at 48-41 after three.
The Red Flash wouldn't go away, trimming the gap to four on multiple occasions. The last time came on a pair of Leah Morrow free throws with 5:11 remaining, which were answered with an Augustin trey a minute later. Ikematsu sank a mid-range jumper shortly after, and following three straight points from Morrow, Irekpitan Ozzy-Momodu tallied three the hard way to put the game to bed.
Augustin paced the Colonials with 14 points on 4-of-9 from three, adding a team-high four steals. Posset scored 13 points and dished out four assists, while Ezeigbo tallied nine points, eight rebounds, five blocks, and two steals.
Castedo made her first career start, supplying three of RMU's record-tying 13 trifectas.
Kovatch led SFU with 17 points, but converted just 6-of-20 from the field and 2-of-8 three-pointers.
The Colonials have now won their last 24 home games in NEC play, last tasting defeat in a conference tilt at Moon Township on Jan. 16, 2017.
Robert Morris begins the NEC Tournament on Monday, March 11 at 7:00 p.m. against eighth-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson. The Colonials swept the season series with the Knights, topping them 71-49 at home and 63-43 on the road.
RELATED: NEC Tournament Information
"We're going to take it one at a time," said Buscaglia. "We never look at things with the fear of losing. We've had to deal with winning and losing this year, and when your back is against the wall and it's a one-and-done type of situation, you just go out there and play the game and control what you can control. We're going to do our best to look at things, make sure we're putting the right stuff together for practice, and taking care of our bodies. We'll continue to have faith in what we're doing and play our heart out on Monday."
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