Wright State Hands Robert Morris Worst Conference Loss in Horizon League

The+team+huddles+during+their+83-59+loss+against+Wright+State+Photo+credit%3A+Hope+Beatty

The team huddles during their 83-59 loss against Wright State Photo credit: Hope Beatty

Michael Deemer

MOON TOWNSHIP– After three straight losses, the Colonials (8-13, 2-10 Horizon) were looking to break the skid against a struggling Wright State (3-19, 2-10 Horizon) squad at home. The Colonials defeated the Raiders on Dec. 2 by 21 points.

The second matchup ended up being the opposite of last December’s matchup, as it was all Raiders throughout Saturday afternoon’s rematch as they defeated the Colonials 83-49

Alejandra Mastral opened up the scoring for the Colonials, however, that would be the only lead they would have for the rest of the afternoon.

The team struggled throughout the first half as the Raiders exploded to a 14-3 run and never looked back.

RMU shot the ball at a 28% clip from the field, hit one three-pointer on 11 tries in the first half, and displayed seven turnovers.

It was a completely opposite feel on the other end as it seemed like Wright State could not miss as they hit 10 threes on 21 shots.

Despite the struggles that Robert Morris had, Coach Buscaglia explained that it was not a game to forget.

“Every game we play, whether it’s a big game or a big loss, we have to look at it in the mirror,” Buscaglia said. “We’ll look at all the game like we always look at the game. We have to look at this. We have to face the music. Teaching them to just ignore things and have them go away. It doesn’t work like that. It never does.”

Wright State’s Kacee Baumhower went a perfect 5-5 in the blowout win, while graduate student Isabella Bolander had 11 points with three three-pointers.

The Colonials have been ranked in 3-point percentage defense almost all year. However, the Raiders shot 41% behind the arc throughout the game, hitting 12 total.

“We can’t live and die by our shooting percentage,” Buscaglia said. “We have to keep getting better at that and need to be more consistent. We had some really good looks. Most of our shots were open and didn’t have a contest. That can be really challenging mentally.”

One of the things that held the Colonials back was turnovers. The team had 14 team turnovers, Wright State capitalized on them by scoring 13 points off turnovers.

Danielle Vuletich led the scoring for the Colonials with 14 points with a good 5-7 shooting with two of three 3-pointers made on the team. Simone Morris had 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Despite the scoreline, Coach Buscaglia has stressed that this team has stayed in the fight regardless of the scoreline and consistently played until the final whistle.

Saturday marks the most points allowed in a game since allowing 94 on Dec.11 against Oklahoma and their biggest Horizon League defeat since joining the conference.

The Colonials will be back in action on Thursday morning at 11 a.m. at Cleveland State.