Piper Earns 100th Career Victory; CCSU Tops RMU 63-46

The Central Connecticut women's basketball team earned a 63-46 victory over Robert Morris on Saturday afternoon at Detrick Gymnasium. The Blue Devils move to 3-0 in Northeast Conference play and 7-7 overall on the season. Robert Morris falls to 1-2 in the NEC and 3-11 overall. Central was led by senior Amanda Harrington with a team-high 15 points.

The victory is the 100th career victory for Beryl Piper as the head coach of the Blue Devils. Piper is already CCSU's winningest Division I coach and now joins her former coach Brenda Reilly as the only coach in program history to reach 100 career wins. Reilly collected 219 wins during her carer with 86 coming during CCSU's Division I era.

The victory gives the Blue Devils a 3-0 start in NEC play for the first time since the 2008-09 season. That year CCSU began conference play 6-0 and finished second in the NEC regular season standings and earned a spot in the Women's Postseason NIT.

Robert Morris got out to a quick start in the game on Saturday with a 5-0 run to begin the contest. However, the Blue Devils answered with a 4-0 run of their own to climb back into the game.

Central then used a 16-3 run over the final 6:44 of the first half to take a 27-20 lead into break. Harrington was crucial during the run as she netted six of her seven first half points over that span.

In the second half, the Colonials used a 5-0 run from the 13:21 mark to 11:35 left to play in regulation to cut the Central lead to just four. However, CCSU responded as Harrington had a wide-open look under the basket coming out of a timeout to push the lead back to six and the Colonials would get no closer for the remainder of the game.

The Blue Devils put the Colonials away with a 12-3 run late in the second half and extended their lead to as much as 16 with 2:21 remaining in the game after sophomore Aleah Epps made a running floater along the baseline.

Epps finished the game with a career-high eight assists and career-high seven rebounds. The 5-4 sophomore also chipped in with six points on two-of-nine shooting from the floor, one-of-three from behind the arc and one-of-three from the line.

Harrington led the team with a season-high 15 points on six-of-16 shooting from the floor. She also connected on three-of-four attempts from the free throw line and pulled down five rebounds for CCSU.

Freshman Camden Musgrave had an efficient day for the Blue Devils as she logged nine points in just 13 minutes of play for the Blue Devils. Musgrave was three-of-five shooting, including one-of-two from three. She also was a perfect two-for-two from the free throw line and collected four caroms.

The Blue Devil defense limited Robert Morris to just 26.2% (17-65) shooting from the floor and 20% (4-20) shooting from three point range. The stingy defense recorded seven steals and also forced 15 Robert Morris turnovers in the game.

CCSU shot 39.3% (24-61) from the floor, 55.6% (5-9) from behind the arc and 66.7% (10-15) from the free throw line.

CCSU will return to action on Monday, Jan. 12 on the road at Mount St. Mary's. The Blue Devils and Mountaineers are scheduled for a 7 p.m. tip-off at Knott Arena in Emmitsburg, MD.