For the sixth time in program history, the Robert Morris women’s basketball team is going dancing, after the Colonials won the Northeast Conference tournament on Sunday by defeating St. Francis, 65-54 at North Athletic Center on RMU’s campus.
The Colonials won their conference tournament for the eight time overall and third time in four seasons. Robert Morris previously made the NCAA Tournament in 2007, 2008, 2014, 2016 and 2017.
Since Charlie Buscaglia took over as head coach in 2016, Robert Morris has won three NEC regular-season tiles, three NEC tournament titles and made three NCAA tournament appearances.
Saint Francis has been a familiar foil, sharing the regular-season title with RMU in 2018 and defeating the Colonials, 66-56 for the tournament championship a year ago.
This time, the Colonials got 14 points from sophomore guard Nina Augustin, 12 points from first-year guard Isabella Posset (Beaver) and 11 points and 12 rebounds from junior center Nneka Ezeigbo.
“I’ve never been prouder,” Buscaglia said. “We’re a young team – 70 percent of this team is freshmen and sophomores – and we definitely didn’t play like it today. I give a lot of credit to Saint Francis, they played extremely hard and (SFU interim head coach Susan Robinson Fruchtl) did an amazing job taking over their team – they gave us everything we could handle.”
The Colonials will find out their first-round opponent during Monday night’s selection show, but will almost certainly play their first game on the campus of their first-round opponent, with a visit to a No. 1 seed likely.
Robert Morris played at No. 1 Notre Dame in 2017 and 2014, and at No. 1 Connecticut in 2016. In 2007, they played No. 2 Rutgers in Des Moines, Iowa and 2006, the Colonials played at No. 4 NC State. They are 0-5 in NCAA Tournament play.
