It would be an understatement to say that things were far from easy for the Robert Morris women’s basketball team in their 2022-23 regular season.

The team had to deal with injuries, players departing the roster, and having a short bench for nearly the entire second half of the season.

After a 4-0 start which was their best in 40 years, and starting 6-1 overall, including a 21-point road win over conference opponent Wright State, things would come to a screeching halt, as the team won just two of their next fifteen games.

The lack of depth was mainly due to the aforementioned injuries and departures. Despite Robert Morris repeatedly fighting their way back into games in the late stages, the pushes would usually stall out.

The offense was also inconsistent enough for the team to stack up consecutive wins after early December. The team averaged just 57.8 points per game throughout the regular season.

Now, fortunately for the Colonials, they have two things working in their favor as the postseason looms:

The first thing would be that the team has continued to accept and embrace head coach Charlie Buscaglia’s mentality and mindset both in practice and in-game: “Keep knocking on the door, working hard, grinding, and eventually, the results will come.” This team has not strayed from that mentality once throughout the season, and for a good reason. It compliments their play style and what it consisted of for most of the year: lockdown defense.

The second is that the conference tournament is a clean slate. Despite everything that happened during the regular season and having to endure multiple losing streaks with an offense that produced less than 60 points per game, that is all in the past. All that’s left to focus on for the Colonials is the matchup in front of them, which is against Milwaukee.

Phoenix Gedeon has been the statistical leader for this team, having a team-high in points with 13.3 per game and rebounds with 8.5 per game. She was named to the All-Horizon League Third Team on Monday and should be the key to pulling off the victory in Milwaukee.

Even with the Colonials’ struggles trying to break the 60-point threshold, they still match up well with Milwaukee. The Panthers also averaged less than 60 points per game in the regular season, and RMU held Milwaukee to just 45 points in the Feb. 19 meeting.

The two teams met twice during the regular season, splitting the matchups one to one. The Colonials will look to clamp down on guard Kendall Nead and forward Megan Walstad, who combined for 36 points in the first contest but were held to just 13 when the Colonials got revenge on the Panthers on Feb. 19.

The Colonials will look to clamp down defensively and grind out a victory over the Panthers in the first round of the Barbosol Horizon League Tournament tonight at 8 pm.