MOON TOWNSHIP– Coming off of a loss on the road versus a strong Texas A&M team, the Colonials looked to get back to winning ways as they hosted the College of Charleston.
Robert Morris was able to get the job done as they walked away with a hard-fought 71-65 victory over the Cougars.
It is always hard to come back from a week off of no games, but the Colonials were able to stay focused and get the job done in what was a weird week of practices.
“This was a challenging week because of exams, practices weren’t nearly as long as they usually are but we went hard to keep our cardio up, during this time with a week off you can really lose your cardio we really tried to make sure we stayed in shape.”
The Colonials were led by junior Danielle Vuletich, who posted a career-high 19 points and a career-high in rebounds with 16.
“We got our cardio in this week in practice so I knew running the floor hard was a big part of that performance, but we also stuck to the scout,” Vuletich said. “We knew that they were going to front the post, so we made some decisions and tweaks within our plays so that we could get some of those looks. My teammates getting me the ball, trusting me to put it up, and the good ball movement really worked right now.”
Down the stretch, RMU did struggle with the late-game transitions as the Cougars put on the full-court press and forced the Colonials into some turnovers.
Coach Buscaglia had some thoughts about the late-game turnovers.
“The late game stuff wasn’t the focal point throughout the week, we go over it, we know it. We have a playbook for it, but your time is valuable. We have done this throughout the season, but we haven’t done it this week, and we were rusty. We knew where to go but didn’t handle the pressure well.”
Robert Morris had 28 points in the paint, coming from a combination of Danielle Vuletich and Naomi Barnwell. The Colonials can thrive when they get the ball to those two players down low.
“What we got to get better at is the flow of if they take away the paint to be ready to pass the ball and be ready to catch and shoot,” Buscaglia said.
Natalie Johnson was another big reason for the Colonials’ success tonight, as she posted a strong 13 points in only 14 minutes of game time. She could make some big shots when they mattered most and utilize the time she was given on the court.
Coach Buscaglia could speak on what he sees from Natale’s game so far.
“She’s got an ability to score the ball. She’s comfortable in the lane with bodies rubbing her and to be able to gather, shot-fake, and step through, hit pull-ups, she’s got a good mid-range. She has been very good at coming off of the bench and knocking some shots down for us.”
Besides a big game from Johnson, the team was able to put up a strong 29 points off the bench. RMU was getting contributions from all over the place tonight.
“We rotate a pretty good amount of players,” Buscaglia said. “We challenge our bench. If we are going to be this team that has this kind of rotation, you have to be ready to play, and we had some great performances off the bench today. They were ready to play.”
Robert Morris will return to action on Monday, Dec. 18th, when they face off against Fairmont State, with tipoff set for 7 p.m.
