Fort Wayne, IN – It was a matchup of a high octane offense against a stout, rigid defense in the Women’s First Round of the Barbasol Horizon League Championship tournament. The league topping Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodon (18-12, 12-8 Horizon) offense hosted the third best defense in the league by way of the Robert Morris Colonials (18-11, 11-9 Horizon) inside the Gates Sports Center on Wednesday night. The saying goes that defense wins championships, but scoring more points wins first round tournament games for the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons as they move on to Indianapolis with a score of 73-43.
Robert Morris would strike first with Bailey Kuhns’ shot down low, and Kuhns would be the next player to score nearly two minutes later. Without head coach Chandler McCabe on the bench due to illness, RMU looked to rely on “Moon Ball” defense being strong and unbreakable, as they looked for most of the season including the matchup between the two teams in Moon Township that saw the Colonials take a 10-point victory. The Colonial defense only allowed 61.1 points per game in Horizon League action coming into the game, and the two and a half minutes looked like the Mastodons might struggle to reach that mark in this “win or go home” game.
Jordan Reid would get the Mastodons on the board with a mid-range jumper, but it would take another 90 seconds and another five possessions for the Mastodons to find the scoring column again with Alana Nelson’s three-pointer. The Mastodons would take the lead 7-4 on Lili Krasovec’s basket down low on a driving post move at the 4:49 mark in the first quarter, and the Mastodons would never trail again in the contest.
The early 9-0 run by the Mastodons would be capped off by Nika Lokica finding success in the lane with a driving layup. The run would come to an end with Traore’s response, a layup of her own on the other end on the following possession. Eva Livingston would hit two free throws for the Colonials to bring the deficit back to one, but Lauren Lee would give the ‘Dons a slight cushion heading into the quarter break with a layup under a minute to play to give Purdue Fort Wayne a 13-10 lead after 10 minutes of play.
The second quarter was a back and forth affair between the two squads that highlighted each team’s grit and perseverance. Lee and Livingston would trade two free throws each, but Ella Riggs would score twice to bring the Mastodon lead up to six. Kuhns and Noa Givon would score back to back to once again bring the RMU deficit back to a single point. Krasovec and Nelson would try to pull away with a basket each, but Levingston and Traore would respond with baskets of their own and a free throw from Markeli Jones-Tynes would knot the game up at 26-26. Each team would score a combination of layups and free throws in the final 80 seconds of the half, but Reid’s 2-of-2 from the line with seven seconds left in the half would give the Mastodons the slightest breathing room going into the second half.
At the half, Horizon League First-Teamer Nelson led all players in scoring with 10 points. Robert Morris would show that their size advantage comes into play on the glass, as they would lead the rebounding tally 20-12. Purdue Fort Wayne’s ball security would be keeping them well in this game, and RMU’s 10 turnovers would be a reason for the deficit for the Colonials. The Mastodons would take a 33-29 lead into the half, and the game would have all the indications of a high drama barn burner – until it didn’t.
Coming out of the second half gates strong, Bess did what she does best, hitting a three pointer in front of the Herd to give the Mastodons their largest lead of the game up to that point at seven, 36-29. The Mastodons flipped on their own defensive switch going into a trap, forcing RMU into yet another errant pass straight into the hands of PFW’s Hillary Offing. Offing would pass the ball up to Lee, Lee over to Bess, and Bess would pass up a good look at a three to a wide open Reid, who would bury a three to force a timeout. Out of the timeout, the ‘Dons dropped into a half-court trapping zone that gave the Colonials all sorts of fits in the last meeting between the two squads. The zone would prove effective once more, drawing RMU’s Traore into committing an offensive foul that would lead directly to a Reid 16-foot shot.
Things would go from bad to worse for the Colonials facing the zone. Reid would continue to deflect seemingly every other pass, and RMU would go scoreless for over four minutes. In the first three minutes of the drought, the ‘Dons would go on a 10-0 run, capped off by Lee showcasing her range from the outside with a nothing but net shot that would force yet another RMU timeout. Out of the timeout, RMU continued to struggle, failing to even get a shot to hit the rim before the buzzer sounded for a shot clock violation. The Mastodons would milk more time off the clock with a long possession, offensive rebound, and two second chance points from Offing. Traore would finally break the drought with a rushed shot from close range, but the damage had been done. Even worse, the damage wasn’t over.
Traore would pick up her fourth foul with 90 seconds remaining in the quarter. The 6-3 sophomore had been a critical piece in the defensive success for the Colonials all season, and she even had a couple of blocks in this game. Her impact on the game was severely hampered by her unavailability due to foul trouble. Lee would get two free throws to give her a new Mastodon and DI high in scoring, and then Bess would get yet another trap steal and the easy basket going the other way. The ‘Dons trapping zone would then force a 10-second violation on the Colonials, and the Robert Morris faithful started to cancel their Indianapolis hotels. The Mastodons finished with a 22-6 advantage in the third quarter, and they would take a 55-35 lead into the final frame.
Traore would enter the game again to start the fourth. She would get the first basket of the frame with a three-pointer in front of the Robert Morris bench. The Traore triple would only be the third made three-pointer for the team that was last in the Horizon League in made three-pointers per game with 4.4 a game. Bess would respond with a three ball of her own, and the extended 21-6 run kept the Fort Wayne crowd on their feet. Bailey Kuhns would then make the back end of two attempts at the line, but Purdue Fort Wayne would respond with more than a free throw. The Mastodons would score another seven unanswered points before a hockey line change of subs would come in for the Colonials. As if things could not go any better for the Mastodons, Krasovec would bury her first career three-pointer, much to the delight of two of the best three-point shooters in the league in Bess and Nelson. The final media timeout finally came, and the Mastodons would take a 68-39 lead into the final stretch of the game.
The teams would trade baskets in the final two minutes of the game, including another three-pointer from a Purdue Fort Wayne forward, this time from freshman Avery Wagner. The final two points of the game would be two free throws from RMU’s Jones-Tynes to take snowflakes off the avalanche, and the Mastodons would take the 73-43 victory in the first round of the Horizon League Championship tournament.
The Mastodons were led offensively by the senior players of the team. Reid led all players with 15 points, Lee ended with a Division I high 14 points, and Nelson recorded a modest 12 points. As a team, the Mastodon offense was productive as always on a high volume of shots. The Mastodons’ 73 points came on 26-of-55 (47%) shooting, 9-of-21 (43%) from deep, and a near perfect 12-of-13 (92%) from the line. Their 73 points are the second most points allowed by the RMU defense all season, only topped by Northern Kentucky’s 81 points early in the Horizon League slate. The 30-point victory margin is the largest margin of victory against a Horizon League opponent for the Mastodons this season, besting their 29-point victory over Detroit Mercy on February 1st.
Krasovec led all players in rebounding with nine, including three on the offensive glass. Ella Riggs grabbed five in 18 minutes of play, and as a team, the Mastodons ended the game winning the rebound advantage 32-28. After losing the first half battle 20-12, the Mastodons outrebounded the Colonials 20-8 in the second half.
Defensively, Purdue Fort Wayne caused chaos in the second half. Including the 11 PFW steals, Robert Morris coughed up the ball 21 times throughout the course of the game. The 21 Colonial turnovers led to 25 Mastodon points. Robert Morris was only able to convert 13 turnovers into 12 points. RMU was also unable to record a single fast break point during the game, in stark contrast to the Mastodons’ 16 fast break points.
Robert Morris finishes their second season under Chandler McCabe with an 18-12 record and a sixth place finish in the Horizon League in the regular season. The Colonials were led by a balanced attack through the whole season. Aislin Malcom led the scoring with 11.8 points per game, and Traore was just three total points behind her, finishing with 11.7 points per game. Eva Livingston led the team with 6.52 rebounds per game, followed by Kuhns’ 5.17 rebounds per game.
At the conclusion of Wednesday night’s slate, the Mastodons now play “host” to IU Indianapolis in Indianapolis on Sunday. Thanks to the IU Indy (7 seed) upset over Northern Kentucky (4 seed) 74-72, the Mastodons are now the “second-worst first round winner”. The Mastodons were seconds from avoiding the second play-in game, but Cleveland State (3 seed) was able to outlast Oakland (8 seed) in overtime 81-80. Had the Golden Grizzlies won, the Mastodons would have earned a birth to their second straight Horizon League semi-final the “easy” way. The game is scheduled to start at 1:00pm ET at the Corteva Coliseum in Indianapolis. The game will be broadcasted on ESPN+.
Subscribe to our emails, and get our latest posts in your inbox, plus a weekly digest of everything we've published!
