Moon Township, Pa. – For the second straight season, the Robert Morris University women's basketball team saw its program-record unbeaten Northeast Conference (NEC) run come to a halt by the hands of Mount St. Mary's, as the Mountaineers topped the Colonials, 62-59, this evening from Peoples Court at the UPMC Events Center.
Robert Morris (19-7, 14-1 NEC) could have captured a share of its fourth consecutive NEC regular-season title with a win, but instead saw its lead in the league standings trimmed to 1.5 games with three to play. The Colonials can still earn that fourth crown with a victory on Sunday, but Mount St. Mary's (17-9, 12-2 NEC) now can secure the top seed in the NEC Tournament by winning its last four contests.
"You have to give (Mount St. Mary's) credit," said head coach Charlie Buscaglia. "You saw a team come out and be able to fight for 40 minutes. We have to fix some things on our end and be better in certain moments. I was proud of us for not quitting, but we have to be better guarding different lineups. We'll go back to the video and back to work at practice."
RMU struggled offensively against Mount St. Mary's pressure, turning the ball over 20-plus times for just the fourth time this season. The Colonials had three players in double figures scoring, led by Dahomée Forgues' 11 (5-7 FG) points, but converted just 3-of-24 (12.5%) attempts from deep.
The hosts jumped out to a 7-2 lead with buckets from Forgues, Honoka Ikematsu, and Isabella Posset, but the Mountaineers climbed back to own a 10-9 advantage at the first media timeout. The freshman guard finished on a backdoor play at the end of the frame to put RMU back ahead, 15-14, and the Colonials grabbed their largest lead with 4:36 left in the half off a Natalie Villaflor layup that made it 25-19.
Mount St. Mary's had an answer for the 10-5 RMU run with an 11-3 surge of its own, capping it with a Jatarrikah Settle layup and Kayla Agentowicz free throw that set the halftime score 30-28 in favor of the visitors. Another rally of 12-3 in the third quarter gave the Mountaineers their biggest advantage at 47-40 with 59 seconds left in the stanza, but Irekpitan Ozzy-Momodu and Esther Castedo scored on back-to-back possessions to make it a three-point game.
The Mount lead grew to 52-46 with an Agentowicz trey, but two Nneka Ezeigbo buckets and a Castedo layup tied it at 52-52 with 5:21 to play. Agentowicz had two more answers, those sandwiching an Aryna Taylor free throw to make it 57-52, but a Posset layup made it a one-possession game with 2:05 on the clock.
Settle answered the sophomore guard with a driving layup of her own and after a long possession, Castedo buried a mid-range jumper to pull the Colonials within three again at 59-56 with 26 seconds remaining. Taylor made the back half of two foul shots to stretch the gap to four, but Castedo buried a trey to keep RMU's hopes alive. However, after two free throws from Agentowicz, a pair of three-point attempts fell off the mark, ending the Colonials' win streak at 14.
Ezeigbo posted the 23rd double-double of her career in defeat, recording 10 points and 12 caroms.
Agentowicz led all scorers with 20 points (5-8 FG, 2-3 3PT, 8-9 FT) for Mount St. Mary's.
RMU's 14-game winning streak was the second longest in program history, behind a 17-game unbeaten stretch in 2007-08 from Jan. 16 to March 16. This is also the Colonials' first home loss against an NEC foe since Jan. 16, 2017, as they previously won 39 consecutive before tonight's blemish.
"It's always great to taste victory all the time whenever you play, but you have to wake yourself up sometimes from being comfortable in your role," said Buscaglia. "You think someone else will pick it up for you, and I think that's what we had for the first half and most of the third quarter. We turned it on late, but credit to Mount because they finished the game."
Robert Morris starts a two-game road swing on Sunday, Feb. 23 with a 1:00 p.m. tip against Fairleigh Dickinson.
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