By Kyle Soppe
The Richmond Spiders aren’t playing like the conference’s youngest team. They have won their first three games, all in convincing fashion over non-conference opponents. Freshmen starting center Liz Brown “really grew up tonight” according to Coach Michael Shafer, as the Maryland product made all seven of her field goal attempts for a career high 15 points to go along with seven rebounds. Rachel Bilney and Gen Okoro each recorded double-digit point performances for the third time this young season, with Bilney keying the deciding run in this ball game.
Neither team wasted any time getting started, as baskets were scored in five of the game’s first six possessions. The sharp shooting Mo Moran buried a pair of three pointers to highlight the early action. Okoro and Brown imposed their will upon the Terriers on both sides of the court. The duo combined for the Spiders first 10 points and was largely responsible for Richmond buckling down on the defensive end.
Rachel Bilney drained a three pointer from just inside the Robins Center parking lot to give the Spiders their first advantage, as the score stood at 13-10 with 13:30 remaining in the first half. Freshmen Yaz Burgess entered the game, and the basket seemed to double in size. Burgess, who had only four points in the previous two games, swished a three pointer, stopped a two on one fast break, and canned another jumper to extend Richmond’s lead to 20-15. But Moran would not let her team pull out of this battle, squeezing between Richmond defenders for a layup that cut the deficit to two.
However, Richmond would not back down. A 10-0 run, which concluded with Okoro’s back to back buckets, gave Richmond a comfortable 35-28 halftime lead.
Defense ruled the early parts of the second half, as neither team could find a rhythm. That is, until Alex Young began to find the range for Boston. She scored eight of the Terriers next 10 points, giving them a 51-48 lead with only 10 minutes to play. But that would be the final highlight from the Boston side, as Brown and Bilney dominated the final quarter of this game. Rachel Bilney caught fire in a hurry, recording eight straight Spider points. Her run concluded with a layup in transition, off of a picture perfect 40 foot pass from senior Abby Oliver, to extend Richmond’s lead to six with 6:30 to play.
The soft hands of Liz Brown created a three point play, as she put the finishing touches on her Christian Laettner like afternoon. With all of the momentum in Richmond’s favor, another bomb from Bilney sealed the deal, a 72-60 win. The Spiders totaled 22 assists as a team, 14 of those coming from Becca Wann and Oliver, and only nine turnovers. That is an impressive figure considering starting PG Miah Register was in foul trouble and PG Keri Soppe was inactive due to illness. The variety of contributors is encouraging for the Richmond faithful, as the schedule will only get more challenging as the season continues to progress.
Richmond heads back to the road, as they travel to Old Dominion for a 5:00pm game on Sunday.
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