Weekend Round-up: 1/11/19 – 1/13/19

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Ryan Giacobbi, Contributor

MOON TOWNSHIP– In case you didn’t follow what happened with RMU sports over the final week of winter break, here is a quick round-up to bring you up to speed on the games that Robert Morris Sentry Media couldn’t get a reporter at.

1/10/19:

Men’s basketball: RMU – 52; Saint Francis Brooklyn -49

The RMU men’s basketball team (8-8, 3-0 NEC) defeated the Saint Francis Brooklyn Terriers (9-7, 1-2 NEC) in a very close 52-49 victory. The first half started off slowly for the Colonials, as they fell behind the Terriers with a 5-0 deficit early on. However, Charles Bain led the come back against the Terriers when he made a 3-pointer to get Robert Morris rolling for a brief time. After Dante Treacy made a 3-pointer and Malik Petteway scored on a layup, RMU was on top 8-5. Then the Terriers started to come back against the Colonials. SFBK’s comeback started shortly after RMU got to their 8-5 lead when Terriers player Glenn Sanabria started with a jumper to trim RMU’s lead down to one point with an 8-7 lead. After that, the Terriers never looked back in the first half as they rolled to a 25-18 lead by the end of the first quarter.

However, the second half was a slightly different story. The half began RMU’s attempted comeback against Saint Francis Brooklyn. Robert Morris scored consecutively from the beginning of the second half until the team was able to tie the Terriers at 27 points apiece on a jumper that landed in the paint from Matty McConnell. However, the Colonials were hardly able to score anything after that as the Terriers weren’t willing to back down until RMU and SFBK were even at 36-36. Saint Francis Brooklyn continued their battle hard, but Robert Morris wasn’t going to go down without a fight until RMU eventually won the game 52-49.

1/12/19:

Men’s basketball: RMU – 73; LIU Brooklyn – 80

RMU men’s basketball’s success (8-9, 3-1 NEC) in Northeast Conference was cut short on Saturday when the team suffered their first conference loss 80-73 against the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds (8-8, 2-2 NEC). The first half involved both the Colonials and the Blackbirds scoring at a close pace. Robert Morris scored first, thanks to the efforts of Matty McConnell, who scored on a 3-pointer to put RMU up 3-0. Robert Morris and LIU Brooklyn kept at a very close pace with each other until after the Colonials tied the Blackbirds at 31-31. Up until that point, the Colonials and Blackbirds had a point-difference as high as seven points when the score was 26-19 in favor of LIU Brooklyn. After that occurred, Robert Morris rolled till the end of the half with a 41-37 lead over the Blackbirds.

The second half is where the Colonials ultimately fell apart. LIU Brooklyn scored consecutively on a 7-point run until both teams were tied at 43-43. RMU attempted to hold off LIU from running away with the win, which they did at first when they tied again at 47-47 and at 50-50, but the Colonials ultimately could not fend off LIU Brooklyn until they won 80-73 against the Colonials. RMU continues NEC play on the road on Saturday, Jan. 19 at 4 p.m. when they visit the Bryant University Bulldogs (5-10, 2-2 NEC).

Women’s basketball: RMU – 75; Saint Francis Brooklyn – 56

RMU women’s basketball (6-8, 3-0 NEC) continues to rebound from an unpleasant non-conference season with a conference win against the Saint Francis Brooklyn Terriers (8-7, 2-1 NEC), defeating them 75-56 on Saturday. In the first quarter, Robert Morris got to a slow start as the Terriers scored first to get out to an early 4-0 lead over the Colonials. After Nadege Pluviose scored on a layup in the paint to make it 13-6, the Terriers made their way back to square one to tie the Colonials at 13-13 thanks to two 3-pointers made by Jade Johnson and a free throw by Mia Ehling. The Colonials ended the quarter with a 9-point run to put up 22 points in the quarter before SFBK picked an additional two points on a layup for the Colonials to end the first quarter up 22-15.

The second quarter involved the Colonials continuing the give the Terriers a tough time as Robert Morris just constantly kept putting points up against SFBK, getting up to a point-difference as high as 19 points when RMU was up 42-23, getting placed there after RMU’s Esther Castedo scored on a 3-pointer. After SFBK’s Dominique Ward scored on a jumper to give the Terriers an additional two points, the Colonials ended the second quarter up 42-25.

The third quarter saw Robert Morris continue to make quick work of the Saint Francis Brooklyn Terriers. After Nia Adams scored a 3-pointer to be up 45-25 on Saint Francis Brooklyn, the Terriers attempted a small comeback that stopped at 45-31 RMU. The quarter continued until RMU ended it with a 56-40 lead.

The final quarter saw RMU continue to put up more baskets, getting to as high of a point-difference of 69-45 until the Colonials ended it shortly afterward after RMU got their last basket by Nneka Ezeigbo on a layup. The Terriers added an additional four points until the buzzer to allow RMU to defeat Saint Francis Brooklyn 75-56.

The Colonials continue NEC play on the road hoping to rebound against the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds (1-13, 0-3 NEC) on Monday, Jan. 14 at 7 p.m. in Brooklyn, N.Y.