Moon Township, Pa. / Charles L. Sewall Center-The Robert Morris University women's basketball team pulled down 16 offensive rebounds en route to a 74-67 win over Akron Thursday night at the Charles L. Sewall Center. The Colonials, now 1-1, converted those boards into 15 second chance points in sinking the Zips to 1-2 on the year.

Redshirt-senior Angela Pace (Westchester, N.Y. / Woodlands (Monroe College)) led the Colonials  by shooting 7-of-11 from the field and 6-of-8 from the line to finish with 20 points. She also led the squad with seven rebounds and four assists.

Junior Bianca Hooten (Canton, Ohio / Canton-McKinley (Bowling Green)) finished with 19 points, draining four three pointers and coming up with three steals in her second contest. Junior Kristine Silaraja (Ventspils, Latvia / Ventspils (Barton County C.C.)) added 14 points, knocking down 6-of-7 free throws and shooting 4-of-6 from the field. She also had six rebounds.

Sophomore forward Mary Durojaye (London, England / Barking Abbey) pulled down a total of seven rebounds, six on the offensive end, and tacked on eight points by going 4-of-5 from the field. She picked up an assist, a block and a steal as well.

Kara Murphy, who led all scorers with 28 points, came out firing for the Zips, staking the squad to an early 6-0 lead. That lead, thanks to 11 points from Murphy, would stretch to nine points, 20-11, when the aforementioned Murphy drained a three-pointer with 11:15 left in the first half.

RMU would answer when Pace scored on a layup after a nice feed from freshman Jasmine Tate (Columbus, Ohio / Harvest Prep). Another Pace jumper was followed by a trey and a layup from senior Monica Jones (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Woodland Hills (Howard College)) to cap a 9-0 run and tie the contest, 20-20, with 6:39 left before the break.

The teams traded baskets for the next three minutes before Yohanna Morton (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic / Arizona Western) and Hooten countered with four consecutive three-pointers to stake the Colonials to a 37-29 lead at the half.

Robert Morris finished the half shooting 52.0 percent (13-25) from the floor, highlighted by a 7-11 (63.6 percent) showing from long-range.

The Zips cut the lead to two points several times in the second half before finally tying the game, 53-53 on a Jolena Tamboue jumper with 11:06 left to play. The Colonials answered with the next five points, four by Silaraja, to take the lead for the final time in the game. The Zips ripped off the next three points, but would not get any closer than a two-point margin as RMU capitalized on 10 second half offensive rebounds to win going away.

The Colonials shot 50.0 percent (27-54) in the game and converted on 13-of-19 (68.4 percent) of their free throw chances. Akron finished at 53.2 percent, but took seven less shots in the game going 25-47. They had 20 assists on those 25 field goals.

Robert Morris returns to the hardwood this Saturday, November 21, when they host Stony Brook in a 7:00 p.m. game at the Sewall Center.