After a strong first quarter start, Robert Morris couldn’t hang on down the stretch, falling 67-53 against top-seeded Wisconsin Green-Bay in the 2025 Barbasol Horizon League Basketball Championship semifinal.
The Colonials end their season with a 15-16 record after storming back into conference standings in the middle of January, and winning a quarterfinal game against fifth-seeded Northern Kentucky. Green Bay extends their win streak to 21, moving onto the championship game tomorrow to play the winner of Purdue Fort Wayne and Cleveland State.
“Really proud with how this group played,” head coach Chandler McCabe said after the game. “I think we shocked pretty much everyone in this room except for ourselves and our administration by even getting here. We were never satisfied and I could not be prouder.”
Isys Grady put Robert Morris on the board with an open three in the left corner, prompting Jada Lee to knock down a pair of triples to give RMU 9 early points through the first five minutes. On the defensive end of the ball, they forced two quick turnovers and only allowed a pair of buckets inside.
Robert Morris finished the rest of the first quarter with a 17-12 lead over GB. Danielle Vuletich came off the bench and scored two tough buckets inside for the Colonials. For the Phoenix, Maddy Schreiber started to catch fire and hit two shots from beyond the arc. The Colonials
The second quarter is where Green Bay came out of their shell, out scoring Robert Morris 21-5 in the second. From the 8:30 mark, they went on a 7-0 run fueled by a Natalie McNeal and-1 finish and pull-up jumper to force a Robert Morris timeout at the 6:25 mark.
The first half ended with a 9-3 run from the Phoenix, after Jasmine Kondrakiewicz sank a pair of shots inside, and Schreiber adding five more points. Noa Givon converted the lone three for the Colonials.
The Phoenix scored the bulk of the 21 points in the paint, coming from a mix of direct drives and post-up looks. The Colonials, who went 3-6 from deep in the first quarter, strayed away from the long ball in the second, only shooting three total. Instead, Robert Morris tried to get back to their bread and butter of scoring inside and playing through the pick and roll with Givon, but couldn’t find easy looks.
The Phoenix held a 33-22 lead going into halftime. Despite only scoring five points in the second quarter, the Colonials were nowhere close to being out of the ballgame. The shots inside the arc weren’t falling, but they managed to contain Green Bay’s offense to just 33 points, and forced seven turnovers.
“If there’s time on that clock, we’re going to play hard, period.” McCabe emphasized this mantra to her team at halftime, and that effort showed in the following half.
To start the second half, Robert Morris made defensive adjustments that bothered Green Bay’s offense, holding them scoreless for the first four minutes of the third quarter. Grady opened the second half scoring with a triple, and found an easy look inside to cut the deficit to just six at the 7:38 mark.
Green Bay finally got on the board in the second half with a three from Jenna Guyer. After both teams traded empty possessions, Schreiber made an and-one to put the Phoenix up 39-27. The third quarter finished with the Colonials going on an 8-4 run to make it 43-35.
Both teams struggled in shooting from the field, but Robert Morris was able to get some looks inside to fall and tightened up their perimeter defense by cutting down on direct drives. They had some timely rebounds to steal a few possessions to cut the deficit to as low as six.
In the fourth quarter, the Phoenix went back to dribble penetration and found eight easy points on the free throw line through the first four minutes. The Colonials responded to almost every basket in the first stretch of the fourth quarter. They went 4-4 in their first four possessions of the quarter, with Givon scoring five and layups from Murray and Grady. After that flurry of offense, the Colonials only trailed 47-53 with six minutes to play.
From that point on, the Phoenix kept pounding the ball inside and populated the free throw line. They ended the game on a 14-6 run, with eight of those points coming at the free throw line. Robert Morris managed to shoot 7-14 from the field in the final quarter, but it wasn’t enough to outpace the Green Bay’s offense.
Senior guard Isys Grady led the Colonials with 13 points and seven rebounds. Mya Moore had a double-double with 12 points and 10 boards, while Jada Moore finished with 12. The Phoenix were led by Natalie McNeal, who poured in 20 points and 12 rebounds.
After the game, coach McCabe was adamant on giving Green Bay’s head coach Kayla Karius credit for her gameplan and overall performance on the season. “Let me be very clear. Kayla is not getting enough credit for what she’s doing with that program. She’s a first year head coach. She did a wonderful job.”
She ended the press conference in thanking her nine seniors and honoring their commitment to her as a first-year head coach. “I cannot be more thankful for them buying into me as a first-year head coach, and then facing adversity… They’ve got me for the rest of their lives.
Isys Grady echoed McCabe’s sentiments. “The biggest thing I told my teammates after the game was that I appreciated, no matter up or down, the fight we had every single game. No matter what the score was, we always were together.”
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