MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. – Rounding out a two-game road trip and playing for the second time in three days, the Oakland Golden Grizzlies will square off with the Robert Morris Colonials on Saturday, February 11 at 1 p.m. at the UPMC Events Center.

Falling to the Youngstown State Penguins in the road trip's first contest on Thursday, February 9, Oakland will enter Saturday at 11-13 and 6-9 in the Horizon League, placing them eighth in the conference.

Robert Morris was also defeated on Thursday, dropping a 61-55 decision to the Detroit Mercy Titans. 7-5 at home this season but just 2-10 away from it, the Colonials are 9-15 and 3-12 in Horizon League play, slotting them 10^th in the standings.

In the meeting between these two at the O'rena, which came back on January 5, the Golden Grizzlies won 71-59 with four different players tallying at least 13 points.

OAKLAND RUNDOWN
Freshman point guard Brooke Quarles-Daniels paces the Golden Grizzlies in scoring at 11.8 points-per-game. Looking to bounce back from a five-point showing against the Penguins, her fewest in the last 13 games, she could be in line for a big Saturday afternoon.

Senior Breanne Beatty and junior Alexis Johnson are both averaging double figures, as well, recording 10.8 and 10.9, respectively.

Sophomore Kennedie Montue has registered 14 points in two of the last three games and classmate Aaliyah McQueen had 11 in the Youngstown State game, her second-best performance of the season.

Oakland's 65 points-per-game are sixth-best in the conference and the Golden Grizzlies are eighth defensively, allowing an average of 70.3 points.

SCOUTING ROBERT MORRIS
Guided by seventh-year head coach Charlie Buscaglia, the Colonials are No. 9 in the Horizon League offensively, but do possess a top-five defense, surrendering just 61.4 points.

The lone Robert Morris player averaging double-digit points at 13.5, sophomore forward Phoenix Gedeon also leads the team in rebounding at 8.6.

Rebecca Dwomoh, Simone Morris and Danielle Vuletich, all fellow sophomores, all contribute at least 7.1 points. Junior guard Mackenzie Amalia is someone to keep an eye on, too, as she has hit a team-high 28 3-pointers.

TELEVISION AND LIVE STATS LINKS
Saturday's action will air live on ESPN+ (subscription required) and can be accessed here.

Additionally, the Live Stats are available at this link.

SEASON-LONG STORYLINES

NEW FACES FOR GOLDEN GRIZZLIES
Faced with the graduations of Kahlaijah Dean, Kayla Luchenbach and Brianna Breedy, who combined to average 28.7 points and 9.9 rebounds last season, the Golden Grizzlies brought in a trio of diversely talented transfers in Raquel Ferrer-Bernad, Alexis Johnson and Linda van Schaik.

A Southfield A&T Warriors graduate, Johnson is a junior forward who played three seasons in Conference USA (C-USA) for the Marshall Thundering Herd, while Ferrer-Bernad is a graduate student point guard who came from a different C-USA program, the Florida International Panthers.

van Schaik, another junior, joined Oakland by way of the Sun Belt Conference's Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks and projects to provide the team with another 3-point shooting threat.

On top of the program's work in the transfer portal, the Golden Grizzlies' 2022 recruiting class features a couple of high-upside players in guard Brooke Quarles-Daniels, a Miss Michigan Basketball candidate a year ago from L'Anse Creuse North, and Lianna Baxter, a 6-foot-1 forward who starred at Oconto and is one of the top-100 scorers in Wisconsin high school history.

BREANNE BEATTY HEADLINES GROUP OF RETURNING PLAYERS
Appearing in all 83 of the program's games over the last three seasons, and starting all but two of them, senior guard/forward Breanne Beatty was named to the Preseason All-Horizon League Second Team on October 18.

The pride of Worthington, Ohio, Beatty is Oakland's leading returning scorer at 9.7 points-per-game in 2021-22.

In addition to Beatty, guards Kennedie Montue and Aaliyah McQueen and forward Miriam Ibezim, all of whom of sophomores, are back with the program and are in line to contribute significantly right from the season's opening tip.

JEFF TUNGATE ENTERS 10^TH SEASON
Named the eighth head coach in program history on July 16, 2013, the 2022-23 campaign is the 10^th with Jeff Tungate at the helm.

Third on the school's all-time wins list with 126, Tungate and four-year veteran assistant Crystal Davis made some changes to the coaching staff ahead of this season, bringing in Golden Grizzly Hall of Famer and former Mercyhurst Lakers head coach Deanna Richard and Tim Webb, who has extensive coaching experience at both the high school and collegiate levels in Michigan, as assistant coaches.