MOON TOWNSHIP – Opening up a four-game home stand, Robert Morris (9-15, 3-12 Horizon) were looking to continue some small success against last-place Detroit Mercy (4-20, 2-13 Horizon). The Colonials last played the Titans on Jan. 7, where they narrowly lost by six.

The Colonials were looking for some revenge in the second matchup of the season vs Detroit, but they fell short as the Titans defeated Robert Morris 61-55.

Danielle Vuletich was the leading scorer tonight as she put up 15 points and also produced seven rebounds and three steals to try and help Robert Morris push over the threshold.

Along with Vuletich the Colonials were able to put up 29 bench points with the help form Natalie Johnson and Louella Allana. Coach Buscaglia talked about the one bright spot of the evening.

“It was one of our bright spots today in a loss like this that, you know we had some real great bench contribution and knocking some shots down also making some play. Louella had four assists today coming off the bench and she hit a couple threes when they were needed.”

The team started the game on a cold streak going down by 10 early on and ending the first quarter down by seven Buscaglia was able to speak on the slow start to the game.

“We are trying to find a balance right now. When you are struggling to win like this program has in the past, a lot of times there’s the battle with the humility where we are not thinking enough of ourselves,” Buscaglia said. “we have to take that last game and be ready to come back out and have that continued edge with us early in the game. The problem is Detroit is not PFW (Purdue Fort Wayne) and so with this game, even with the time to prepare, we did not do the things that would take them out of their comfort zone.”

Along with the slow start the Colonials provided little resistance in the paint and on interior defense, which allowed Detroit Mercy 50 of their 61 points in the paint. Coach Buscaglia talked about what he thought of his team’s interior defense.

“50 points in the paint is the first thing I said when we went in the locker room. We’ve had these games before where we give up too much in the paint. A lot of it is getting beat off the perimeter and them getting in our paint and touching our paint with the bounce.” When we are getting beat with the point in the paint it’s because we are giving up too much off the bounce.”

The Colonials were able to force 17 turnovers but from those turnovers, they were only able to get 17 points out of them. Along with the turnovers, RMU also had 8 steals but was able to do very little with them.

“We caught some nice steals from being active and did some good things on defense and kept them in front of us. They struggled to live without touching paint, so when they drove and got it into the paint, they are very good at finishing and very good at crashing,” Coach Buscaglia said. “If we kept them out (of the paint) then they turn the ball over more.”

The Colonials’ next game will be Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. at the UPMC Events Center versus Oakland.