The home court momentum continues for Miami’s women’s basketball team early this season.
The Hurricanes’ bench scored 48 points toward a new season-high in scoring output to defeat Robert Morris 86-45 on Sunday. Freshman guard Lashae Dwyer had 15 points and five assists off the bench and junior forward Lola Pendande scored 10 and grabbed 15 rebounds, collecting her first double-double as a Hurricane.
“Credit to Robert Morris, they were missing a couple of players and their coach, but I thought they were really gritty,” Miami head coach Katie Meier said. “They scouted us well and they made us fight. Our pace of play was phenomenal.”
Senior guard Karla Erjavec, UM’s second-leading scorer, added 14 points to mark a new season-best for the Hurricanes (7-3), who exploded for 27 points in the second period and 25 in the third. Miami out-rebounded Robert Morris 57-19.
Graduate guard Kelsey Marshall scored five points on 2-of-9 shooting in a quieter outing, drilling a 3-point field goal to pull within two of becoming UM’s all-time leader in made 3-point field goals. The South Florida native entered the matchup ranking 17th in the country in average 3-point shots per contest.
“Pace of play and me just begging them to not make me make a call on every possession,” Meier said on the team’s change in offensive approach. “We’ve got so many new players and so, to recognize what I want … We have a multiple point guard system and it took a while for everybody to understand what look we want in our flow.”
The Hurricanes scored 29 points on second chances and now average over 64 points per game, as their offensive attack has steadily improved following a 4-2 start. UM has not scored less than 70 points in each of its four games in December.
Miami scored 48 points in the paint. Colonials forward Sol Castrol scored a game-high 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting, but fouled out as Robert Morris’ only double-digit scorer.
“Our guards are playing really well, our post players are working their tails off,” Meier said. “The timing of our offense, that’s something I’ve really got to work on. I’m going to spend the next week making sure that we get our post players the ball when they’re open. We’re missing them a lot.”
Following a six-day layoff, Miami welcomes Duke to the Watsco Center for its first Atlantic Coast Conference test on Sunday. Tip-off is set for noon.
“This is a really fun team,” Meier said. “We’ve been working so hard and challenging each other. This was the first game that we really had it in hand and we could have a little fun.”