MOON TOWNSHIP– On what was an emotional night for Robert Morris women’s basketball players, coaches, and fans, the team battled through the pain and adversity to come out on top of IU Indy, 61-58, on Thursday night.
It was a tough and gritty game, full of battles and fouls, but under new head coach Chandler McCabe, the team showed strength and resilience to find a way to win.
“I’m really proud with how this fought today,” McCabe said. “IU Indy is a really good team. We always talk about how through the flow of the game It’s almost like a boxing match. If you get punched you got to punch back and everyone was punching each other this game We ended up with the final punch.”
One change to the team who was coming off a tough loss to Green Bay was the reintroduction of Danielle Vuletich, the senior whose led RMU for the last 3 seasons and was injured since before the new year.
“It means everything [to have her back on the court].” McCabe said. “Dani has been at RMU longer than me. She’s the heart and soul of this team, and the kids really respect her, and she’s the same person everyday. Practice, day off, gameday, that’s really hard to do from 18 to 22 years old and we’re really really happy to have her back as a leader, but on the court as well.”
“I’m just very thankful that I have the opportunity to come out and play these last couple games with them,” Vuletich said, adding “And getting injured right before New Year’s was kind of hard, because I didn’t know what would happen, but with hard work, never losing who I am, always being a leader, on the bench, on the floor, whenever I can, I’m just happy to play with my girls again.”
While Vuletich was the big name addition to RMU’s rotation, the additions of transfer students Mya Murray and Noa Givon proved vital tonight for the Colonials.
Givon led RMU in points and assists, while Murray recorded a double double, something McCabe acknowledged as integral to the win.
“Noa made a lot of plays today,” McCabe said. “We watch film every single day, Noa and I. So I’m really happy some of the film is working for her, sometimes we need her to score more and not just make plays, but today we needed her to make plays. And she had an incredible game.”
Another key to RMU’s success through this game and the entire season has been points off the bench. For the second game in a row, McCabe has played over 10 players, 11 tonight against the Jaguars and 12 versus the Phoenix last Saturday.
“It’s all within the flow of the game.” Coach McCabe said. “Jada [Lee] picked up two quick fouls, [Alejandra Mastral] came in and she did her job, she was plus one in her minutes and that’s all we needed her to do. Micah [O’Dell] was huge for us. The depth of our team, you don’t win a lot of games without it, and we were 21-9 in bench points tonight and that’s really all you have to say.”
The Colonials found out it was going to be a back and forth game from the get-go. The margin remained tight between the two sides until the second half, when RMU held a 39-30 lead for a majority of the third quarter.
The 19-15 lead IU Indy had in the first quarter would be their largest lead of the night.
For the rest of the game, the Colonials and Jags would participate in a tactical, yet chaotic sparring match, one that would include 27 fouls and 13 lead changes total.
IU Indy had the advantage entering the fourth quarter, leading by one. But a flurry of quick shots by Givon, Isys Grady, and Micah O’Dell saw the Colonials gain a lead of 57-51. The lead would be insurmountable for the Jaguars, though the team made a valiant effort, closing the gap to just one.
“I’ve said many times you win or you learn, and in a few of our losses we haven’t had good fourth quarters, so it looks like our girls have learned.” McCabe said.
It was too little, too late. After a couple free throws from Isys Grady, the Jags would be unable to take the last shot they needed to force overtime, and the Colonials would come out winners, 61-58.
The win meant a bit extra to the team and especially to coach Chandler McCabe, who’s mother fought the disease twice before losing her battle when McCabe was a child.
“It’s huge,” McCabe said when asked about how important the win was to her. “I’ve had the chance to talk to our young ladies for the past couple days, really this whole month, we kinda say it’s the pink month. And everybody has been unfortunately affected by this terrible disease, at the end of the game, we had our things to say, but I’m most proud of our ladies for the fight they put up because there’s a lot of people that are fighting well beyond basketball and we honored them tonight in a really good way.”
McCabe and the Colonials will look forward to a matchup against Northern Kentucky on Sunday, one McCabe has described as very important for their path ahead.
“Next game is the biggest game of the season. That’s what we say every game but this one maybe means a little more even though it’s just the next game, we’re half a game behind them, they’ve already beat us, we need to tie it up one to one, we also need to go up half a game on them, so it’s huge, at least for the implications of playoffs. But we don’t look ahead, we just look to our next opponent.”
RMU’s matchup against the Norse is scheduled for 2 P.M. on Sunday. It will be the team’s penultimate home game.
