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Moon Township, Pa. / Charles L. Sewall Center – Senior forward Artemis Spanou (Rhodes, Greece / Nea Smyrni) and freshman center Cassie Oursler (Grand Island, N.Y. / Grand Island) each picked up double-doubles as the Robert Morris University women's basketball team upended Mount St. Mary's, 71-65, at the Charles L. Sewall Center Saturday night to claim the Northeast Conference regular season championship. The Colonials, who earn their fourth regular season title under 11th year head coach Sal Buscaglia, are the top seed in the 2014 NEC Women's Basketball Tournament with a 14-4 league record and 18-11 overall mark.
 
Spanou led all players with 24 points and pulled down 12 rebounds as well. Oursler scored 17 points and had 18 boards to go along with six blocks. All three numbers are season-highs for the freshman forward. The Colonials post players gave RMU a 34-20 advantage in the paint and a 40-29 edge on the glass. Freshman guard Anna Niki Stamolamprou (Thessaloniki, Greece / Aristotelio College of Thessaloniki) tacked on 14 points and four assists.
 
The Colonials have won 10 consecutive home games, finishing the league slate perfect at 9-0 in games at the Sewall Center.
 
The teams battled back and forth right from the tip as the game featured four lead changes and four ties in the opening 13 minutes. Mount took a four-point lead on a Sydney Henderson jumper with 9:14 left in the opening half. Freshman Rebeca Navarro (Galicia, Spain / Las Siege Palmas) answered with the first of three three-pointers for her in the game.
 
A three-point play by Oursler was followed by another long ball by Navarro and Mount answered one last time as Jacqueline Brewer drilled a three-pointer to tie the score at 25. The Colonials would then go on an 11-3 run over the next four minutes, taking the lead for good en route to carrying a 38-32 advantage into the break.
 
Back-to-back lay-ups by Oursler and Spanou were followed by a three-pointer from Ashley Ravelli (Milano, Italy / The Hun School) as Robert Morris pushed the margin to a game-high 13 points just over two minutes into the second half with a 7-0 run.
 
The Mount had one last push, cutting the margin to five points with an Ashley Christie three-pointer with 3:40 to play. However, RMU was able to connect on five of seven free throws down the stretch to hold on for the 71-65 victory.
 
Mount St. Mary's was led by Christie's 18 points while Jessie Kaufman added 14 and Brewer chipped in with 13 points.
 
The Colonials will host #8 LIU Brooklyn in the quarterfinals of the NEC Tournament Sunday, March 9. Tip-off is slated for 2:00 p.m. at the Charles L. Sewall Center.