MOON TOWNSHIP — The Robert Morris women’s basketball team (5-8, 2-0 NEC) recently finished their non-conference schedule and started their 2019 Northeast Conference schedule at home, where they jumped out to a solid 2-0 start in NEC play. RMU will now take both their win streak and their skills in dealing with conference opponents to Brooklyn, N.Y. where they will be playing both NEC teams from that area: the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds (1-12, 0-2 NEC) on Saturday at 1 p.m. and the St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers (8-6, 2-0 NEC) on Monday at 7 p.m.

Recapping RMU

While RMU did not exactly live up to expectations during non-conference play, in which Robert Morris went 3-8 during that time, the team has slowly begun to turn that around with a couple of strong performances in Northeast Conference play. The Colonials 2-0 start has them in a four-way tie for first place in the NEC with Saint Francis Brooklyn (8-6, 2-0 NEC), Saint Francis (5-9, 2-0 NEC) and Sacred Heart (6-7, 2-0 NEC). The Colonials won their NEC opener with a 70-58 win over Mount St. Mary’s (6-7, 0-2 NEC). Their success continued when they dominated Fairleigh Dickinson (3-10, 0-2 NEC) by a score of 71-49.

In the game against the Mount St. Mary’s, Robert Morris was able to jump out to an early 8-0 lead in the first quarter and the ended the first quarter with a one-point deficit to the Knights with a score of 13-12. The second quarter is where RMU started to pull away from MSM and claim the lead for themselves. RMU got as large as an 11-point lead when the score at 24-13 RMU. The scores for the remaining quarters were 45-29 and 70-58 in which Robert Morris hung on to take the NEC opener away from Mount St. Mary’s.

As for the game against Fairleigh Dickinson, the Colonials started with a 2-2 tie before ending the first quarter with an impressive 18-2 lead over their conference rival. Robert Morris never saw their lead being overtaken by the Knights after the Colonials made the strong start during that game in which the score was 40-11 after the second quarter, 60-32 after the third quarter and 71-49 at the end of the game.

A common trend seen here is that RMU was able to gain an edge over both teams easily, as compared to when Robert Morris was playing in non-conference play in which they were playing teams that weren’t as familiar to them as NEC teams are. This trend should help RMU continue their strong conference play when they play both LIU Brooklyn and Saint Francis Brooklyn.

Players to watch

Isabella Posset (RMU): Posset was named Northeast Conference Women’s Basketball Rookie of the Week for week nine of the women’s basketball season as she accounted for 11.0 points, 6.5 rebounds and 6.0 assists for each outing she had over the past week. After a strong performance like that, she could very much repeat that performance over the next two games against LIU Brooklyn and Saint Francis Brooklyn.

Irekpitan Ozzy-Momodou (RMU): Ozzy-Momodou can be considered a mile-high contributor with moderate stats who is just waiting to have a breakout game, especially since Northeast Conference play has started. For the season, she has played for 218 minutes with a .533 field goal percentage, which is the highest average of any player on the team and has averaged 6.5 points per game with 84 points scored for the year. With statistics like that, she is just waiting to have a breakout game at any time.

Jade Johnson (SFB): Jade Johnson is the player that RMU should be worried about the most when they go to play the Terriers. She has played for 498 minutes this season with .453 field goal percentage and a .439 3-point goal percentage. In addition, she has scored 254 points for the Terriers, which is highest on the team.

Jeydah Johnson (LIU): Jeydah Johnson is LIU Brooklyn’s biggest threat. She has a .350 field goal percentage to go along with a .352 3-point field goal percentage and averages 14.0 points scored per game with 182 points scored for the season.

Predictions

For my game score predictions, I predict the RMU versus LIU Brooklyn game to result in a Robert Morris victory. LIU Brooklyn has been off to a rocky start with only one win for the entire year and no wins against conference opponents. I predict the final score to be something like 82-43 given the huge disadvantage that the Blackbirds hold and RMU’s success so far in NEC play.

For the RMU versus Saint Francis Brooklyn game, I predict the final score to be something like 73-70. I predict the close score because the Terriers have had success this year in both non-conference and conference play, while the Colonials have only had success so far in conference play, so I expect the game to be very close for both teams.