Moon Township, Pa. – Behind a collective effort and a career-high from sophomore Rebecca Dwomoh, the Colonials captured a 74-43 win over Oakland on Saturday afternoon at the UPMC Events Center.

With the win, the Robert Morris women's basketball team improves to 10-15 overall, including a 4-12 mark in Horizon League action. Meanwhile, the Golden Grizzlies fall to 11-14 this season with a 6-10 mark in conference play.

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
The Colonials opened the game by scoring the first five points, all coming from sophomore guard Alejandra Mastral. After back-to-back scores by the Golden Grizzlies, junior guard Mackenzie Amalia sparked a 9-2 run with a triple. A Phoenix Gedeon layup gave the Colonials a 10-6 lead before sophomore Danielle Vuletich converted consecutive layups to stretch the RMU lead, 14-6. The Golden Grizzlies ended the quarter by scoring five of the next eight points to trim the Colonial lead 17-11 after one. The two squads combined for 12 turnovers in the opening frame. The two teams opened the second quarter by trading the first 14 points as RMU led 24-18 with 6:36 remaining in the half. Dwomoh led an 8-1 run as she connected on two three-pointers to stretch the Colonial lead 32-19. Oakland countered by scoring six of the next 10 points to end the half as RMU held a 36-25 advantage heading into the locker room.

In the second half, the Colonials opened the third quarter on a 9-0 spurt. Sophomore Simone Morris started the run with a jumper before freshman Louella Allana buried a left corner triple, 41-25 RMU. After an Oakland turnover and an Allana steal, Gedeon connected on consecutive layups to force a Golden Grizzlies timeout. An Alexis Johnson jumper ended the run before a Dwomoh steal and a Mastral fast break layup pushed the lead back to 20. Later in the quarter, the two teams went almost two minutes without a bucket before Oakland ended the quarter by scoring seven of the last nine points, 56-34.

QUOTABLE
"We had to respond and bounce back in tough moments," RMU head coach Charlie Buscaglia said. "That's where we're going to get our success is from learning how to bounce back, not to bring the worst out in you but use the adversity and tough moments to bring the best out of you."

NO DWOMOH ABOUT IT
Sophomore guard Rebecca Dwomoh paced the Colonials and carded a career-high 19 points, on 6-of-10 shooting from the floor. She registered a pair of three-pointers while going a perfect 5-for-5 from the charity stripe. Dwomoh also recorded a career-high eight rebounds, two of them coming on the offensive, while tallying three assists, two steals, and a block in the win. The England native scored 10 of her 19 points in the second quarter, where she was three-of-three from the field and a perfect two-for-two from behind the arc.

"It was definitely a team effort," Dwomoh said. "We played as a team like coach said and we had a decision to make to either let Thursday's loss bring us down or bounce back from it. I feel as a team, we bounced back and executed pretty well."

DEFENSIVE DOMINATION
As a team, Robert Morris put together one of its best defensive performances of the season on Thursday afternoon. They held the Golden Grizzlies to just 23.5 percent (12-of-51) from the floor, while holding them to just 5-for-26 (19.2 percent) from behind the arc. The Colonials forced Oakland into 24 turnovers, 12 in each half, while collecting eight steals. The Golden Grizzlies shot just 2-for-11 (18.2 percent) in the first quarter before registering an 18.8 percent (3-for-16) performance to begin the second half. Oaklands 43 points is their third lowest total of the season and the third lowest point total Robert Morris has given up this season.

QUOTABLE
"It was a great challenge and the points in the paint was something that we had to get fixed," Buscaglia continued. "That had to do with not just on the ball but off the ball as well and how we were playing our style of defense. That was a big number for us today that we really wanted to bring down. Oakland is always tough. Coach Tungate does a great job there and you know it's always going to be a battle. It's hard to outwork them sometimes and I felt we did that and we didn't go anywhere even when we got the lead, we played free, we played hard, and we got stops. "I have to give the team a lot of credit again for bouncing back and responding. I have to watch the tape to clean some stuff up but what I watched live, I was very pleased with the performance."

FOUR HEADED MONSTER
After a career-high from Dwomoh, three other Colonials finished in double figures. Louella Allana registered a season-high 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field, including 3-for-5 from three-point land. She also paced the team and tied her season-high with six assists and grabbed three steals. Alejandra Mastral and Phoenix Gedeon also recorded 11 points each, while Gedeon grabbed seven caroms. Mastral finished 4-for-6 shooting from the floor and carded four rebounds and two assists.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Junior Mackenzie Amalia chipped in eight points with a pair of triples from deep, while grabbing three rebounds. Sophomore Danielle Vuletich finished with eight points, five rebounds, one steal, and a block off the bench. As a team, Robert Morris registered its best shooting performance all season at 48.2 percent (27-of-56) and its second best percentage from behind the arc at 47.4 percent (9-for-19).

UP NEXT
The Colonials return to the UPMC Events Center on Friday, February 17, when it hosts Green Bay at 7:00 p.m. in Horizon League action.

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