UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va– Richmond grinded out a 59-45 decision over Duquesne Wednesday night to conclude their home slate at the Robins Center.
Richmond improved to 22-6, 9-4, while Duquesne fell to 19-9, 7-6. The 22 wins is the Spiders’ most since 2004-05, the last time the program went to the NCAA tournament. Richmond snapped Duquesne’s four-game win streak while improving to 12-2 at home. Seven other teams including the 2011-12 Spiders have won 22 games or more in a season.
After Duquesne started the game 4-0, Richmond responded with a 14-2 run to take a 14-6 lead in the early going. Duquesne was held to sixpoints for seven minutes in that stretch. The Spiders went into the break with a 29-24 lead, kept afloat by the hot-handed Rachael Bilney and her team-leading 11 first-half tallies.
The Dukes would tied the game at 31-all with 15:33 remaining in the game, but it was Bilney who put the Spiders ahead with two free throws. Richmond would not trail again.
The country’s third-best free throw shooting team did not disappoint, sinking a perfect 18-for-18 attempts from the charity stripe. To the surprise of no one, the nation’s best at the line, Abby Oliver, led the pack at 6-for-6 makes.
Three Spiders scored in double figures, led by Oliver’s 15 points. Bilney added 13 points, while two-sport athlete Becca Wann recorded 14 points and a career-high 12 rebounds. It was the fourth career double-double for Wann. Genevieve Okoro had 11 rebounds off the bench. Wann has led Spider rebounding in seven of the last nine contests.
The Spiders notched their second-straight win over Duquesne and moved to 12-4 in the series.
Richmond limited the A-10’s second-best scoring team (69.8 ppg) to just 45 points, its lowest point total of the season.
Richmond concludes its 2012 regular season at Charlotte Sunday at 2 p.m.
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