MOON TOWNSHIP– The Robert Morris women’s basketball team has done it. They are heading to Indianapolis for the first time in program history.
They defeated Northern Kentucky 70-56 Thursday night in the first game of the basketball doubleheader at the UPMC Events Center.
First-year head coach Chandler McCabe has led he team from being picked last in the Horizon League Preseason Poll to the conference tournament’s semifinal.
“ I haven’t let myself personally get satisfied at all,” McCabe said. “I’m really proud of these kids, and I always have been. We talked about people doubting us, but today the pregame speech was about proving ourselves right, and that these young ladies did that today and I couldn’t be happier.”
This team has been making history and breaking milestones all season long and this milestone of reaching the semifinals is the same for McCabe and the team.
“ We’ve been breaking history all year, and we don’t plan on stopping.” McCabe said.
“This feels great. This is my first time in playoffs in my collegiate career, so I’m just enjoying every moment of it, and not a better group to be doing it with.” Mya Murray said.
“it feels good because we had a tough beginning, but we also always know this is the goal.” Noa Givon said.
The team was led by Givon tonight, who had a season-high 21 points in the win. She set a season-high 20 points just last week against Youngstown State and is playing her basketball of the season at the right time.
“It feels so good I’m just happy I helped the team win.” Givon said.
She shot the ball 18 times, hitting 11, but McCabe keep telling her to shoot the ball.
“She’s an unselfish player,” McCabe said. I told her, ‘You have to shoot. You have to shoot through this’ and she did. She had 23 points, so she shot a decent amount.”
Coach McCabe on defense all year and usually does not talk offense during timeouts and defending they did, most prevalently in the third quarter as the held the Norse to a poor 3-for-17 shooting in the frame and said it was the best quarter of the season.
“We hang our head on defense, so I never talk about offense in our huddles. It’s always about the defensive side of the ball.” McCabe said.
The Colonials will play top-ranked Green Bay in Indianapolis Monday at noon. The Phoenix swept the Colonials in the season series and are riding a 20-game win streak.
