University of Richmond Athletics
Richmond Women's Basketball Downs West Virginia, 84-74
12/22/2000 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 22, 2000
RICHMOND, Va. - UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. -- Sophomore center Krystn Gull (Asheville, N.C./Erwin) delivered a team-high 15 points and the Spiders forced 29 West Virginia turnovers to claim an 84-74 victory over West Virginia in non-conference women's basketball action tonight at the Robins Center.
Winners of three straight games, Richmond improves to 5-4 overall, while the Mountaineers fall to 3-7 on the campaign.
A trio of Spiders comprised of junior point guard Michele Koclanes (Pelham, N.Y./Pelham Memorial), junior forward Tasha Swaby (Satellite Beach, Fla./Satellite) and sophomore guard Elise Ryder (Dayton, Ohio/Chaminade Julienne) had 10 points each. Koclanes also dished off ten assists. Sophomore center Ebony Tanner (Asheville, N.C./Ravenscroft) snared a game-high nine rebounds. The effort followed her 15-rebound performance in a 78-64 win over Coppin State on Wednesday evening.
West Virginia was paced by freshman guard Kate Bulger and senior forward Brandi Batch, who each registered a game-high 19 points. Mountaineer senior guard Darya Kudryavtseva also reached double figures with 17 points.
Despite shooting under 40 percent from the field for the game, the Spiders defense remained active. It marked the sixth straight contest that Richmond has forced 20 or more giveaways. In addition, over the past four contests, opponents have averaged 27.8 turnovers per game against Richmond. The Spiders have also come away with ten or more steals in each of their past four games.
Leading 20-18, the Spiders orchestrated a 10-2 run and owned a 30-20 advantage with 3:36 remaining in the opening half. West Virginia cut the lead to as few as three points on two occasions before Richmond settled for a 39-33 halftime advantage. Gull led all scorers with ten points at the break. She has paced Richmond in scoring in three of the past four games and is averaging 14.0 points per game in that stretch.
West Virginia took the lead at 44-43 with 14:43 left in the contest, but Richmond came back and built their advantage to 66-57 with 5:39 to go. With West Virginia attempting to cut into Richmond's 70-64 lead, Swaby made a steal and raced to the other end for an easy layup to build the Spiders lead to 72-64 with 3:08 remaining. It was a play emblematic of Richmond's defensive intensity throughout the team's current three-game win run. Thereafter, Richmond ballooned its lead to 76-64 and led by nine or more points the remainder of the contest.
Richmond, which concluded its season-long five-game home stand with a 3-2 record, returns to action on Friday, December 29, participating in the first round of the Sun and Fun Classic against tournament host Florida International at 7 p.m. The Spiders will face either Rider or Holy Cross in the consolation/championship game on Saturday, December 30 at 4/6 p.m., respectively.
