PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Robert Morris women's basketball team lost the first game of a home-and-home series against Youngstown State Thursday evening at the UPMC Events Center, falling to the visiting Penguins by a final score of 59-57. The loss moves the Colonials to 7-9 overall and 5-6 in Horizon League play.

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED

The Colonials got off to a hot start against the Penguins, ending the first quarter up 12-7 and led by as many as 12 with under six to play in the second. Natalie Villaflor came off the bench for RMU to contribute six points to the run including field goals on consecutive possessions in the second. YSU continued to fight back, however. The Penguins came back with a 13-3 run of their own, tying the game 25-25 after 20 minutes of play.  Lilly Ritz earned eight of her 16 points in the YSU rally, ending the night with a double-double

MORRIS TIME

Freshman guard Simone Morris has made the most out of her two games against the Penguins this season. After putting up a career-best 11 points in the Colonials  season debut in Youngstown earlier this month, the Carson, California native followed it up with a  new best Thursday at UPMC Events Center, pouring in 12 to set a new high in her still young Colonials career.  Morris was clutch in down the stretch for RMU, burying four of her last five from the field in the second half including a four-point play to kick off the run. 

FOUR ON THE FLOOR

Morris was not the only Colonial that enjoyed a season-best performance. Senior Natalie Villaflor also enjoyed her best day of the year offensively, posting 12 points as well three boards and two assists.  Villaflor was one of four Colonials to score exactly 12 points on the evening, joining Morris, Esther Castedo and Ashya Klopfenstein. It marks the first time this season RMU has had four girls score in double-figures. 

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED

With back-and-forth scoring throughout most of the third and fourth quarters, RMU rallied with an 11-4 run, highlighted by excellent defensive play from Sol Castro and Ashya Klopfenstein, who finished with seven and six rebounds, respectively. With RMU holding a 57-56 lead with 1.7 seconds on the clock, Megan Callahan sank a three from the right corner to give YSU the 59-57 lead with 0.9 on the clock. One last-ditch shot from the Colonials missed the mark as the Penguins held on to narrowly secure the win.

QUOTABLES

"Youngstown State is obviously a top team in the league. They play like a champion, you can't knock what they do and how they do it. They're very difficult to beat, but we really put ourselves in a position to win today. It wasn't always pretty, but this was one of the times since I've been coaching us that we were a true team. We were 100% dialed in for that entire game, playing together, playing as one. I'm always proud to coach this team, but today had a different feeling, today was special. There's days where you win and you feel like you shouldn't have, and there's days you lose and feel like you should have won, and unfortunately today was the latter." - Associate Head Coach Scott Schneider

NEXT UP

RMU completes the second game of a home-and-home series on Saturday, January 22 when they travel to Youngstown State at the Beeghly Center at 1:00 p.m.