University of Richmond Athletics
Women's Basketball Earns Two More Victories Abroad
08/19/2004 | Women's Basketball
Aug. 19, 2004
The University of Richmond women's basketball team earned two more victories while overseas this week, recording a 90-31 win over Soller of Mallorca before escaping the Portuguese National Team by a close 66-62 margin.
The Spiders were powered to their second victory on the Iberian Peninsula by a unique combination of travel and lack of sleep. After learning that their game versus Soller of Mallorca was moved to Friday, a day earlier than scheduled, the team sacrificed sleep in order to catch the morning flight to Mallorca, one of Spain's east coast islands. Still warm from the road, the Spiders unveiled their other key to victory, a potent offensive attack that placed all nine players in the scoring column and netted them a 90-31 victory.
"It's not easy to hop off the plane after a few hours sleep and perform at an optimum level. They stayed focused and were able to control the tempo of the game by jumping out early," praised third-year head coach Joanne Boyle.
After going to the locker room at the half with a comfortable 47-17 lead, Boyle mixed up the lineup in the second half and experimented with different combinations. Senior forward Sandie Walker took advantage of the new lineups and emerged as a scoring threat in the middle.
Boyle added, "We experimented with a big line-up using Flavin and Campion as guards, and adding size with Amber and Sandie".
The end result was an explosion in offensive rebounding against the undersized Soller squad, as well as a fury of scoring in the paint. Campion, Flavin, and Walker finished the game with 17, 16, and 15 points, respectively.
Facing the toughest challenge of their European tour, Kate Flavin loaded her team on her back and carried the Spiders to a 66-62 victory over the Portuguese National Team. After the two previous decisive victories, the Spiders knew their next two contests versus Portugal would be much more of a battle.
Flavin, the experienced senior, used her six-foot frame to find holes in the Portugal defense and score a game-high 31 points, five of them coming in the final minutes.
"Kate was amazing tonight. Although you never want to be so dependent on one person for scoring, I loved watching Kate demand the ball when the game got close," Boyle commented.
Flavin's performance was not the only highlight that stuck out in the coach's mind. Boyle recognized the key to the Spiders' victory was in the rebounding margin: Richmond 50, Portugal 27. The Spiders held the National Team to just four offensive rebounds, severely limiting any chance Portugal had of scoring easy second chance points. Meanwhile, they pulled down 18 offensive boards of their own.
The Spiders concluded their international tour with a second game against the Portuguese National Team on Wednesday night. Results will be posted when available.
