University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
CO St. Tourny/UCSB
Women's Basketball Falls to #22-Ranked UCSB
12/28/2002 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 28, 2002
FORT COLLINS, Colo. - The University of Richmond women's basketball team fell to the 22nd-ranked Gauchos of UCSB, 82-72, tonight in first-round action in the womenscollegehoops.com Ram Holiday Classic in Moby Arena on the Colorado State University campus. Richmond falls to 7-2 on the season, while the Gauchos improve to 5-1. This was the first time that the Spiders had faced a ranked-opponent since falling to 18th-ranked North Carolina on December 8, 2001.
Junior Amber Goppert (Malone, N.Y.) led all players, scoring a season-high 19 points and dishing out a career-high seven assists. Freshman Araceli Gil (Santa Barbara, Calif.) contributed nine points and a career-high ten assists, while teammate Kate Flavin (Englewood, Colo.) led the team in rebounds (16) for the fourth consecutive game. Other Spider players reaching double figures in the scoring column were seniors Cammy Desmond (Midlothian, Va.) with 14 and Ebony Tanner (Garner, N.C) with ten.
Tanner scored six of Richmond's first eight points to help lead the Spiders to an early three-point advantage but the two teams would exchange leads for the following four minutes before the Gauchos took a four-point lead off a three-point basket, her first of three, by Lisa Willett. Richmond's Elise Ryder (Dayton, Ohio) connected from behind the arc to even the score at 21 with just under eight minutes remaining. The teams again exchanged leads for the remainder of the first half before USCB took a 30-29 advantage into the locker room.
Richmond's Gil opened the second half hitting a three-point basket for her first points of the game and the Spiders hit their next five of seven shots to take a four-point advantage (44-40) with 16 minutes remaining. Jess Hanson hit her first three of the night to give the game it's fifth and final tie of the night (51-51) to begin a 17-7 Gaucho scoring run that produced the first double-digit lead at 68-58. Richmond was unable to reduce the deficit to single-digits and the Gauchos cruised to the 82-72 victory.
The Gauchos out-rebounded Richmond 35-28, only the third time this season the Spiders ended the game with fewer rebounds than their opponents.
UCSB had five players reach double-figures, including a 16-point performance from Lisa Willet, while Jess Hanson chipped in 14.
Richmond returns to action Sunday night in the consolation game at 5:00 pm MST/7pm EST against Stony Brook.
