Robert Morris Women’s Basketball Sees Season Come to End in Semifinal Loss to Top-Seeded Green Bay

INDIANAPOLIS — The Robert Morris women’s basketball team saw their historic season come to an end to the top-seeded Green Bay Phoenix in the semifinal round of the 2025 Horizon League Tournament. The Phoenix used a dominate second quarter to erase a nine-point lead before going onto win by the score of 67-53.

While the Colonials season comes to a screeching halt, nobody expected them to make it to the Corteva Coliseum in Indianapolis anyways as they were predicted to finish in last place of the league under first-year head coach Chandler McCabe.

“I think we shocked pretty much everyone in this room except for ourselves and our administration by even making it here,” McCabe said after the loss. “We were never satisfied by that though. We wanted to really win this game. [Our players] obviously came out and tried to prove that but I could not be prouder.”

With nine of McCabe’s players being seniors or graduate students, she will have to re-tool the lineup in the offseason but with the momentum that was built within the program this season, the Colonials future looks bright as they move forward under McCabe and that is because of the impact of the current group of players.

“It’s really hard for me right now, honestly,” McCabe said after the game when asked what this team means to her. “I cannot be more thankful for them buying into me as a first-year head coach and then facing adversity, like we were 1-7 to start this conference. We kept five (players) of them that have been together for so long and that was so important to me to not touch that bond. Then, we brought four more [players] in that believe in us and they got me for the rest of their life.”

The game started as good as it could for the Colonials as they quickly jumped out to a 9-4 lead behind three triples, including two from Jada Lee. The Colonials capped off a 10-0 run to jump ahead 13-4 before the Phoenix started to hit some of their shots.

The Phoenix climbed back into the game behind back-to-back threes from Maddy Schreiber which made the score 15-10 at the first media timeout. Following the media stoppage, each team scored one more field goal before the first quarter buzzer but the Colonials held a 17-12 lead.

The Colonials started 5-of-8 from the field and 3-of-4 from behind the arc but finished the first quarter making just half of their 14 shot attempts.

The Phoenix continued their climb to start the second quarter as Natalie McNeal went on a heater as she scored 10-straight points for Green Bay. In the meantime, the Colonials scored just once on a jumper from Mya Murray. This run made the lead change sides as the Phoenix jumped ahead 22-19.

After the Phoenix jumped ahead, they did not look back as they went on to outscore the Colonials 21-5 in the second quarter. While the Phoenix’s offense stepped up, so did their defense as the Colonials made just two field goals in the quarter. In comparison, the Phoenix went 8-of-18 from the field in the second period.

“They (Green Bay) is too good of a team to beat when you get outscored 22-5 in the second quarter,” McCabe said of Green Bay’s second quarter explosion. “We tried to sustain it and come back in the third. One thing that we are going to do is that if there is time left on the clock, we are going to play hard, period.”

“They were really taking away some looks for us,” McCabe continued. “Our three-point percentage all season long, they were playing for that and we were really hot then they started guarding the three a little bit more. We got 16 attempts, we probably have to make a couple more of those shots but again, I am just so proud of this effort.”

The Colonials tried to fight back to start the second half as they matched their second quarter output in the first three minutes as Isys Grady nailed a three and then finished the mini-run a crafty finish at the rim. Grady’s two buckets cut the Colonials deficit to six as it made the score 33-27.

The Phoenix ended the Colonials run when they made their first bucket of the quarter over four minutes into the half. Fortunately for Green Bay, it was a three from Jenna Guyer which pushed the lead back out to 9 points at the media timeout.

The Phoenix eventually pushed the lead to double-figures but the Colonials did not just go away as they got the a couple of scores from Lee and Murray to pull back to within single-digits before the end of the third quarter. The Colonials trailed 43-35 at the conclusion of the period.

The Colonials continued to make shots in the fourth quarter but could not stick with the Phoenix defensively as every time that the Colonials scored, the Phoenix ended up shooting free throws on the other end which they did not miss.

The Phoenix managed to keep the Colonials at an arms length through the first three minutes of the final period before Noa Givon nailed a three to pull the Colonials back to a single-digit deficit. Givon’s triple made the score 51-44 with 7:19 left in the game.

The Colonials then went on a run as Lee hauled in an offensive rebound and finished the possession off with a tough layup. The Colonials pulled to within six points of the Phoenix as they went the first half of the final quarter without making a field goal.

Unfortunately for the Colonials, the Phoenix did go 10-of-10 from the free throw line during that span. After Bailey Butler sunk her fifth and sixth free throws of the period, the Phoenix saw their lead grow back to 10 points with under five minutes to go.

Up by 10 with under five to go, the Phoenix just chewed the clock out while still making shots to close out the x-point semifinal win over the Colonials.

With the loss, the Robert Morris women’s basketball season is officially over as they will return to Moon Township. As for the top-seeded Phoenix, they advance to tomorrow’s Horizon League championship game to face the winner of Purdue Fort-Wayne and Cleveland St.