University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
Xavier
Spiders' Second-Half Rally Falls Short
02/07/2009 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 7, 2009
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. -
Despite senior Johanna McKnight scoring all of her season-high 17 points in the second half, Richmond (17-7, 5-4) fell to No. 21 Xavier (20-4, 8-0) 68-55 Saturday afternoon at the Robins Center.
Richmond went into halftime trailing 29-18, thanks to Xavier guard Tudy Reed's nine points. The Musketeers went up by as many as 14 points twice in the second half before the Spiders started to chip away at the lead. Freshman Abby Oliver scored five straight points to whittle the Musketeer advantage to 39-30 at the 13:55 mark.
"We knew we had to step up aggressively," said McKnight. "We made a good comeback."
After Xavier pushed the lead back to 43-33 with 12:37 remaining, McKnight made two consecutive lay-ups to put the Spiders back in striking distance at 43-37 at the 10:59 mark.
"We had a lot of kids step up today," said head coach Michael Shafer. "Johanna hit some key shots for us."
After trading buckets with Xavier for the next two minutes, Richmond cut the lead to 49-47 after a three-pointer by McKnight. The Musketeers responded with an 8-0 run to push the lead back to 57-47 with 4:56 remaining.
"You have to give Xavier credit," said Shafer. "They responded to our run with a run of their own. They made some very big shots when it counted."
McKnight hit another three to cut the lead to 57-50, but the Spiders would never recover.
Freshman Danielle Bell scored nine points. Sophomore Brittani Shells returned with seven points off the bench, after missing two games due to an injury sustained in practice last week.
Reed and Jerri Taylor led Xavier scoring with 13 points apiece.
Richmond faces Rhode Island next Saturday. Tip is slated for 11:30 a.m.
