Robert Morris Women’s Basketball Suffers Season-Opening Loss to UIC

The Robert Morris women’s basketball program has high aspirations for the 2026-27 season as the program enters its third season under the leadership of Chandler McCabe.

The Colonials upped their overall win total along with their conference win total in season two under McCabe, but ultimately came up short when it mattered most as they failed to make it back to the latter stages of the Horizon League Tournament after reaching the semifinal round in her first season with the program.

Now, with a new-look roster that was built around All-Horizon returners Myriad Traore and Eva Levingston, look to not only increase both win totals for a third-straight season, but also make the trip to Noblesville for the chance to punch the program’s ticket back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2018-19 season.

Those plans still remain in tact despite the Colonials coming up short in the 71-58 season-opening loss to Illinois-Chicago on Thursday afternoon.

Notables

Robert Morris returned All-Horizon Third Team honoree Myriam Traore and All-Horizon Defensive Team selection Eva Levingston, and brought in a plethora of shooters and playmakers in the offseason such as Meghan Murray, Mackenzie Blackford, Page Greenburg and sisters Teigh and Timberlynn Yeast.

The Colonials were without Levingston in the team’s season opener which allowed Traore and some of the newcomers such as Murray and Greenburg to step up into larger roles.

Traore finished the game as the team’s leading scorer with 15 points and she added four rebounds and three assists in the loss.

Greenburg, who played sparingly while at George Mason, provided a huge first-half spark off of the bench as she scored all 12 of her points in across the first two quarters of the game and sunk a trio of three-pointers. Murray, a transfer from Kent State and the team’s new point guard, along with prized freshman Teigh Yeast, each added 7 points against UIC.

The Flames managed to keep the Colonials’ offense at bay, especially in the second half. The Colonials shot just 6-of-23 (26%) and went just 1-for-11 (9%) from three-point range in the second half. The Flames also forced 21 turnovers in the game which directly led to 33 points off of turnovers.

The Robert Morris defense also just did not play stout enough in the loss as Illinois-Chicago shot 47% from the field and 62% from three. UIC’s Julia Coleman, Nevaeh Foster, Tutu Clayton and Miyah Brown combined for 45 of the Flames’ 71 points.

Recap

Robert Morris was the hotter team out of the gates thanks to Myriam Traore who scored 8 of the Colonials’ first 11 points which game them an early 11-6 lead. The Yeast sisters scored the other two buckets in the opening stages for the Colonials.

UIC finally woke up and started to abuse the Robert Morris perimeter defense as the Flames hit four three-pointers in a short spurt that opened up a 16-4 run and put them ahead 19-13.

As McCabe’s team looked for answers defensively, the offense also started to slow down. That is when McCabe turned to Page Greenburg as a scoring option off of the bench. Greenburg hit an and-one three and followed it up with another triple right after to cut the Colonials’ deficit to 21-20.

Greenburg added her third three of the half midway through the second quarter which put the Colonials up 30-28 but then the offense went dormant over the final four minutes of the half as the Flames used an 8-2 run to take a 38-33 lead.

Mackenzie Blackford made it a 38-36 game at halftime as she sunk a buzzer-beating three, but the Colonials’ three-point shooting fizzled out in the second half as they made just one of their 11 attempts.

Illinois-Chicago opened the third quarter up with a 12-3 run which forced McCabe to burn a timeout to re-group her team, and it did just that as Robert Morris responded with a 10-3 run that cut the deficit back down to 53-49.

The scoring run was possible due to the Colonials’ ability to shoot free throws as the last 8 points of the run came via the charity stripe. Robert Morris shot 17-of-18 from the line in the loss.

The Colonials maintained the small deficit over the first few minutes of the fourth quarter, being as down by as little as 57-55, but the offense just could not get into a rhythm which led to multiple three-point misses and easy scores down the other end as UIC closed the game out on a 14-3 run.

Up Next

Robert Morris returns to action on Sunday afternoon as it will look too get back to .500 on the season when it hosts Delaware State at the UPMC Events Center.

The Colonials do not open up Horizon League action until the first week of December when it hosts reigning champion Green Bay on the 3rd followed by Milwaukee on the 5th.