MOON TOWNSHIP – In the second game of its four-game homestand, Robert Morris (10-15, 4-12 Horizon) welcomed Oakland Golden Grizzlies (11-14, 6-10 Horizon). The last time these two teams played, the Golden Grizzlies walked away with the win. In this matchup, the Colonials would Cruise to a victory over Oakland with the score of 74-43.

Trying to bounce back after a rough defeat to Detroit Mercy on Thursday, the Colonials used Anna Niki Stamolamprou as motivation. Coach Buscaglia was able to comment on his team’s bounce-back mentality.

“We had to respond, we just had Anna Niki Stamolaprou come and visit us for the Hall of Fame. Anna Niki had an amazing career here championships, MVP’s just an outstanding student-athlete that developed over the course of her four years,” Buscaglia said. “I talked about how she always bounced back. I told these guys about bouncing back from tough moments. We are going to get our success from learning how to bounce back.”

Leading the way today for RMU was sophomore Rebecca Dwomoh, who had a career-high in points with 19. She also produced eight rebounds and 3 assists. But Rebecca said it was an all-around team effort tonight.

“It was definitely a team effort. We definitely played like a team. We had the decision to make to either let the loss from Thursday bring us down or bounce back from it and I feel like, as a team, we bounced back. We knew what was at stake. We obviously wanted to win and we played together and executed.” Dwomoh said.

One of the biggest changes’ tonight was RMU’s interior defense going from Thursday night, where they gave up 50 points in the paint against Detroit Mercy, to tonight, where they only gave up 10 points in the paint.

“It was a great challenge and we met it. The points in the paint were really something that we had to get fixed that had a lot to do with not just on the ball but off the ball, how we were playing, our style of defense what we do. That was a big number for us today and what we wanted to bring down. Obviously, it was too much. It was a chuck of faith in what we are doing. It could get really easy to think we can’t do something when we could. We could do a good job and keep teams out of our paint.” Buscaglia said.

The only thing Robert Morris struggled with tonight was foul trouble. At halftime, RMU accrued 14 fouls and sent Oakland to the line for 11 points in the first half. The second-half fouling calmed down for the Colonials, but they still finished with 21 team fouls. Coach Buscaglia talked about the team’s foul trouble tonight.

“You got to be really strong mentally. When you have a low number and you got to stick with what’s right,” Buscaglia said. “You can get really chaotic and you can start doing things you wouldn’t normally do when you get low numbers. We talk about what they’re doing to get us in foul pole positions. The action that they’re running we knew they were going to test the waters on something.”

Besides the fouls, the only struggle that the Colonials faced tonight was the high press that Oakland was putting on them late in the third quarter. Coach Buscaglia talked about the trap the Golden Grizzlies put them in late.

“They started pressing and especially when the ball goes out of bounds and it’s a dead ball, they get to set up and all of that,” Buscaglia said. “You got to handle it better. That huddle has got to be efficient. Sometimes when you have low numbers and you have people out of position, there are all types of different responsibilities when you break a press. It is challenging but you got to be very efficient in the huddle to organize.”

Robert Morris will use this win as momentum going into the season’s last four games.

The Colonials will continue this four-game home stand when Green Bay comes to town Fri. Feb 15 for a 7 p.m. tip-off.