Moon Township, Pa. – A game that featured seven lead changes and four other deadlocks seemed to be going in favor of Wright State early in the fourth quarter. However, the Robert Morris University women's basketball team made up an 11-point deficit with a 21-7 run over the final 6:56 to complete a weekend sweep of the Raiders, taking home a 68-65 triumph this afternoon in Horizon League action from the UPMC Events Center. RMU improves to 2-8 overall and in conference with the win, while WSU falls to 9-5 overall and 9-3 in league play.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Trailing 58-47 with 6:56 remaining in regulation, RMU saw itself down three following a pair of Channing Chappell free throws five minutes later. The Colonials responded by going to their senior captain Nina Augustin, who canned a three-pointer from the wing to tie it at 62-62 with 1:21 to play. RMU then got a stop on defense and Sol Castro pulled down the rebound, allowing head coach Charlie Buscaglia to advance the ball with a timeout. Out of the break, the Colonials worked 14 seconds of the clock before Augustin struck again, catching the Raiders off balance with a left-handed floater to put the hosts ahead, 64-62, with 28 seconds remaining. RMU then forced an illegal screen and travel from the visitors, and sank three of four foul shots over that stretch to seal the comeback victory.
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"When a game is played this hard and both teams are working to get a win, it's unfortunate that someone has to lose," said Buscaglia. "I have to give a lot of credit to Wright State and Coach (Katrina) Merriweather for a great game plan, and I give a lot of credit to our student-athletes who really stepped up and overcame adversity. They kept knocking on the door as we say, and kept a relentless pursuit to just continue to capture our culture and beat a team that is going to play hard no matter what. We did a great job of executing some adjustments that we made, and down the stretch it was just a great job of making plays and finishing the game. We got some key stops down the stretch and the student-athletes really responded."
CAPTAIN CLUTCH
Senior guard Nina Augustin has been immense late in games over her career, most recently displaying that with a game-tying layup in the waning seconds of regulation of last year's Northeast Conference (NEC) Tournament quarterfinal game against Wagner. Augustin provided similar heroics this time around, scoring all 12 of her points in the second half, with seven coming in the final 10 minutes. The Helsinki, Finland product went on a personal 7-0 run over a minute, burying the tying three, go-ahead jumper, and insurance free throws within that span.
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"I remember (Nina Augustin's) first games and even though she struggled in some ways early in her career, I could see the heart and determination to want to constantly get better and do better," said Buscaglia. "She's really an example of someone who – even though if she's off to a bad start shooting the ball or things aren't going her way – she can perform down the stretch. Today she wasn't shooting the ball particularly well going into the last quarter, but she knocks down that three and gets into the lane with such a great pace to finish that left-handed pull-up. Those are all kinds of plays that Nina Augustin has made throughout her career here at RMU, and she just has that heart. She's like (former San Antonio Spurs guard) Tony Parker, who continues to come and no matter what happens during the game, you're going to get her focused and working hard. She's a big part of this program, and I'm really proud of how well she's growing here. She's going to give you everything she has every game, and that's something you can be sure of."
THE BUILD UP
Wright State grabbed its largest lead of the contest with 6:56 to play, as KK White grabbed a steal and raced in for a fastbreak layup to make it 58-47. Castro drew a foul on the next possession and split a pair of free throws, sparking an 8-0 run that cut the deficit to 58-55 at the media timeout. After Jada Roberson stopped the bleeding briefly with a floater, Megan Callahan buried her second trey of the final stanza with 2:49 on the clock to make it a two-point game.
QUOTABLE
"You have to keep fighting," said Buscaglia. "It's something that's easy to say – you can do that in pre-game talks, or at halftime, or during timeouts – but your actions on the court are going to speak so much louder than the words. When we got down like that, it was going to be the actions on how we handled the moment. The encouragement from the bench was outstanding, the coaching staff stayed locked in, and we had great communication as a staff about what we could do to come back – but it has to be a player-driven mentality, and that's really what sparked the comeback. We came back pretty quickly when we picked up the momentum and captured that culture. We had to grind and be tough and physical, and that's ultimately why we were able to come back."
YOU GOTTA HAVE SOL
Freshman forward Sol Castro capped off the weekend with another strong performance, leading the team in scoring with 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting, while providing five rebounds, two assists, and two blocks in 36 minutes. Castro will likely be a strong candidate for Horizon League weekly honors, as she averaged 21.5 points on 53.3 percent shooting, 8.0 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks in RMU's two wins. The Rio Colorado, Argentina native entered the weekend with a scoring average of 6.1 points per game, and leaves it with a team-best 9.2 mark.
CALI IS THE MISSION
Not to be outdone by Castro or Augustin, redshirt junior Megan Callahan had a big role to play in the Colonials' victory. Callahan scored 10 points (3-8 3PT) and dished out a team-high five assists against zero turnovers in 34 minutes of action. The double-digit scoring effort was her first since Nov. 24, 2018 when she collected 12 points at Loyola Marymount, and she owns a 3.3 assist-to-turnover ratio over RMU's last three contests after tallying just two helpers in the team's first seven games.
DO CALL IT A COMEBACK
The Colonials pulled off a double-digit comeback for the second time in as many seasons, as they trailed by 11 with 6:56 remaining in the fourth quarter this afternoon. On Dec. 18, 2019, RMU entered the final stanza of regulation at Norfolk State down 47-36 – and trailed by as many as 13 points in the third quarter – before forcing overtime and ultimately winning 69-62 in the extra frame. The 11-point comeback was just the team's second of double digits since 2017-18, as it made up a 10-point second-half gap in a 62-49 win over Fairleigh Dickinson on Feb. 17, 2018.
20/20 VISION
Sol Castro is the first Colonial to score 20 or more points in consecutive contests since Nneka Ezeigbo, and the first freshman to do so since current teammate Honoka Ikematsu. Ezeigbo netted 30 against LIU Brooklyn on Feb. 25, 2019, then added 20 at Wagner on March 2, 2019. Ikematsu poured in 23 points at Fairleigh Dickinson on Dec. 29, 2017 before netting a career-high 25 at Sacred Heart two days later.
THE OPPONENT
RMU escaped with a victory this afternoon despite an unconscious shooting performance by Wright State guard Channing Chappell, who led all scorers with 22 points off the bench. Chappell was perfect on the day, converting all seven of her field goal attempts – six coming from beyond the arc – and a pair of free throws in 28 minutes of action. The Raiders' bench outscored the Colonials', 40-14, and as a team owned a 40-28 advantage on the glass.
UP NEXT
RMU stays in the friendly confines of Moon Township as it hosts I-76 rival Youngstown State for a pair of games on Jan. 29-30. Friday's tip is scheduled for 7:00 p.m., while Saturday features a 5:00 p.m. start. Both games can be seen on ESPN+.
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