PITTSBURGH – The RMU women's basketball team dropped its first contest of the season, falling to Pitt 63-54 at the Petersen Events Center on Saturday afternoon. The Colonials now sit at 4-1 on the season.
 
FIRST QUARTER

• The Colonials had an electric start to the match, finding themselves up 12-3 over the Panthers with 7:50 on the clock after a Noa Givon three.
• RMU's offense continued to stay hot, with the Colonials leading by 19 with 57 seconds left on the clock in the first quarter. RMU went into the second quarter 27-8 after neither team was able to score again.
• On defense, the Colonials held Pittsburgh to just 11.8% shooting from the field, with the Panthers going 2-for-17.
• From deep range, RMU was hot to begin the game, shooting 57.1% on 4-for-7 shooting from beyond the arc.

SECOND QUARTER

• The Panthers slowly began to chip away at the Colonials lead to start the second half, with Pitt going on a 7-0 run to make it 27-15.
• With 1:26 remaining in the first half, the Colonials found themselves up only nine as the Panther offense started to come alive following a layup by Lauren Rust in the paint to make it 34-25.
• The Colonials got back-to-back buckets to extend the lead back to 13 before a pair of free throws by the Panthers with three seconds remaining made the score 38-27 in favor of RMU going into halftime.

THIRD QUARTER

• RMU started the third quarter with a three by Jada Lee to go up 14 before the Panthers went on a 6-0 run to make it 41-33 with the Colonials up by eight.
• Pitt's offense heated up in the third quarter with the Panthers quickly erasing the Colonials eight-point lead as Pitt went on another run, this time a 12-0 run to take their first lead of the game following a layup by Pitt's Angel Jones to make it 45-44.
• The teams traded baskets back-and-forth until the Panthers went on a 4-0 run to close out the third quarter, up 51-48 with their biggest lead of the game thus far.

FOURTH QUARTER

• The fourth quarter started with a 4-0 run by Pitt to put the Panthers up 55-48 with 8:14 on the clock.
• The Panthers extended their lead up to 13 with 1:41 left on the clock to put Pitt up 63-50 over RMU.
• The Colonials were able to score two more baskets on a pair of layups by Layke Fields and London Creach to try to close the gap but were unable to mount a comeback.
• The Panthers' defense forced RMU to shoot 23.1% from the floor in the fourth quarter, with the Colonials going 3-for-13 from the floor while Pitt shot 62.5% on 10-for-16 shooting.

INSIDE THE BOXSCORE
Aislin Malcolm and Jada Lee led the Colonials' offense with 11 points each on the afternoon. Ava Leroux was the only other Colonial to reach double-digits on the afternoon as Leroux recorded 10 points and a team-leading seven rebounds. In her return to Pitt, Malcolm also tallied five assists and a rebound. Lee was second on the team in rebounding, grabbing five off the glass. As a team, the Colonials shot 21-for-56 from the floor on 37.5% shooting. RMU was perfect at the charity stripe, going 5-for-5 on the afternoon.
 
UP NEXT
The Colonials (4-1) will continue their road stretch, heading to Ypsilanti, Michigan, to take on Eastern Michigan on Wednesday afternoon. Tipoff is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.