Moon Township, Pa. – Owning a five-point lead at halftime, the Robert Morris University exploded out of the gates in the second half, outscoring St. Francis Brooklyn, 21-1, in the frame to ultimately capture a 69-44 victory this evening in Northeast Conference (NEC) play from Peoples Court at the UPMC Events Center.
Robert Morris' (9-6, 4-0 NEC) third-quarter performance of allowing a single point was the first of its kind since Jan. 8, 2018 when it opened the game against St. Francis Brooklyn (5-10, 1-3 NEC) with an 11-1 advantage. The Colonials shut out the Terriers on 14 shot attempts in the frame, and held them to a 27.9 percent (17-61) mark overall – their lowest field goal percentage allowed this season against a NCAA Division I opponent.
"St. Francis Brooklyn came out and played really hard," said head coach Charlie Buscaglia. "(Terriers head coach Linda Cimino) does a good job at getting them to play hard, and they have some nice young players on their team. Our effort was better today than (this past Saturday) against Wagner, and I thought we did a good job at tightening some screws and changing some things after halftime. We opened up the floor and our post players did a good job at finishing around the basket."
RMU controlled the contest inside, receiving a combined 24 points and 20 rebounds from the center pair of Nneka Ezeigbo and Irekpitan Ozzy-Momodu. Ezeigbo led the way with the 21st double-double of her career, recording 16 points and 10 rebounds, while Ozzy-Momodu added eight points and 10 caroms in 15 minutes. As a team, the Colonials owned a 55-33 advantage on the glass, with the 55 caroms being the most for the program since grabbing 57 against LIU Brooklyn on Jan. 6, 2018.
After trailing 13-10 to end one quarter, RMU began the second stanza with an 8-2 run to take an 18-15 lead. Following an Ally Lassen bucket, Ezeigbo scored on back-to-back possessions, then Dahomée Forgues finished twice to give the Colonials a three-point edge. That gap held until the 1:04 mark of the half, when Holly Forbes finished a putback and Honoka Ikematsu found Ezeigbo inside for two. Abby Anderson beat the buzzer on the next trip down, making it a five-point game at the break.
Following halftime, RMU came out flying with a 9-1 surge over the first two minutes. Ikematsu canned a pair of trifectas to open the stretch, then after a Lassen free throw, Ezeigbo netted three points to force a St. Francis Brooklyn timeout at 37-24. Ozzy-Momodu then checked in and finished inside twice, sandwiching a Forgues field goal to make it 43-24 at the second media timeout.
The lead kept growing from there, as Ezeigbo collected two buckets and Esther Castedo made the scoresheet to push the gap to 25 points after 30 minutes. Megan Callahan connected from deep to open the final frame, giving RMU its largest advantage at 52-24, and the hosts cruised from there to move to 4-0 in league play.
The Colonials enjoyed a 42-22 superiority in the paint and outscored the visiting bench, 29-8.
Lassen finished with a team-high 15 points for the Terriers.
This is the third consecutive season and ninth time overall that RMU has begun the NEC portion of its schedule with a 4-0 mark.
Buscaglia captured his 50th NEC victory and is now 50-8 (.862) against the conference in the regular season.
Robert Morris continues its season-long four-game home stand on Saturday, Jan. 18 at 1:00 p.m. when it hosts league newcomer Merrimack. The Colonials defeated the Warriors in their first ever meeting on Jan. 4, 68-62.
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