INDIANAPOLIS — Robert Morris women’s basketball team made their first Horizon League semifinal appearance Monday afternoon, taking on top seeded Green Bay in Indianapolis.
While the Colonials battled hard and flipped the script on their past games against the Phoenix, a detrimental second quarter would lead to the team coming up short.
RMU was tasked with an uphill battle from the get-go, having to play a team that scored over 70 points against them in their last two matchups. Meanwhile, the Colonials offense sputtered, with the team never surpassing 50 points themselves.
The Colonials would change that narrative fast though, coming out of the gate hot and taking an early 13-4 lead. This was due in large part to back-to-back threes from Jada Lee. Robert Morris would shoot 50% from the arc in the opening frame, scoring 3-6. The first quarter would end 17-12 in favor of the Colonials.
Green Bay head coach Kayla Karius recognized the abnormality in this style of play from the Colonials.
“[The game] started the way we thought it would, besides how many threes they hit,” Karius said. “It’s not really their M.O. but they started to feel really good and started to hit a couple threes which really got us stretched out.”
But similar to past matchups against Green Bay, the second quarter would not be kind for RMU. The Colonials would be outscored 22-5 in the frame, a complete flip of the first, yet familiar nonetheless. Robert Morris would enter the halftime in an 11 point deficit, which could’ve been larger if not for the Colonials’ stingy defense.
“One thing we’re gonna do is if there’s time on that clock, we’re gonna play hard, and we did. Period.” Colonials head coach Chandler McCabe said. “They were really taking away some looks from us, they started guarding the three a little bit more, but we had 16 attempts so we probably had to make a couple more of those shots.”
The second half would start brighter for RMU, as Isys Grady and Mya Murray would take charge and bring their team as close as six points behind Green Bay.
“I would definitely say we really came together at halftime, just to regroup after that second quarter,” Grady said. “[We] just wanted to instill that mindset that we are going to make this game competitive, and it’s not gonna be like those past few times we played this team.”
Unfortunately for the Colonials, the Phoenix’s Maddy Schreiber continued to dominate herself. The senior forward would score 16 points while shooting 75% from three.
Entering the final quarter down by eight, the Colonials needed a spark on offense. After some clutch points from Noa Givon and Mya Murray, the Colonials found themselves within touching distance of the top seeded team in the Horizon League.
But the deficit would be too much to handle, and the Colonials would end their season of unprecedented success in the semi-finals, falling 67-53.
“I’m really proud of how hard these guys played.” McCabe said. “I thought we were a couple shots away from a possession or two game. I think we shocked everyone in this room, except ourselves and our administration, by even making it here. We were never really satisfied by that, though. We really wanted to win this game, and we tried to prove that today.”
The loss concludes a season of ups and downs, but success unlike anything anyone around the league could imagine when first-year head coach Chandler McCabe took charge last March.
After starting the season 1-7 in conference, the Colonials would rally behind a historical win in Youngstown State in January, and win all but three of their final 12 matches. Now, with the season over and nine seniors leaving, Coach McCabe and her players just want to express their thankfulness for what this season has brought them.
“It’s really hard for me to talk [about them]. I cannot be more thankful for them buying into me as a first year head coach, and then facing adversity.” Coach McCabe emotionally said. “We kept five of them who’ve been here together for so long, and it was so important to me that we didn’t touch that bond, and then we brought four in that believed in us, and they got me for the rest of their lives.”
