University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
Appalachian State
Spiders Conclude Non-Conference Action With 78-56 Rout At App State
01/06/2010 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 6, 2010
BOONE, N.C. -
Richmond (11-4) closed out its non-conference schedule with a 78-56 rout over App State (7-7) Wednesday evening at Holmes Center. Sophomore Joyous Tharrington scored a career-best 12 while junior Brittani Shells notched another game-high performance with 19 points.
"I thought that we ended non conference play on a positive note," said head coach Michael Shafer. "We head into LaSalle well tested and prepared for conference play. It is a new season and we are going to approach it exactly that way. We want to push the overall record aside and focus solely on the A-10 record, as that is all that matters at this point in the season."
After a slow start, Richmond took command of the game at the 15:47 mark with a Nikita Thomas layup to take a 7-6 lead. The Spiders went on a 7-0 run, thanks to Thomas' six straight points.
Richmond pushed its lead to 18-8 behind the hot-shooting scoring Spider trio of Tharrington, Thomas and Abby Oliver. Richmond proceeded to outscore the Mountaineers 17-4 in the ensuing seven minutes of play.
Richmond's bench accounted for a staggering 30 of the Spiders' 39 first-half tallies. Tharrington led the charge with a career-best 12 points, shooting a cool 5-for-5 from the field. Richmond's bench ended the night posting a season-best 45 of the Spiders' final 78 points.
"It was a physical game and it was on the road," said Shafer. "I thought that we were a little road weary from playing at Wake and then travelling up to Boone on a days rest. However, we responded and were able to use a great deal of energy to force 27 turnovers and create easy scoring opportunities that allowed us to shoot 46% from the floor. I am incredibly pleased with 20 steals and 18 assists. Those 2 stats are tremendous. The other stat that was just amazing was the 45 points scored by our bench. We are starting to get more and more production across our lineup which will only make us better."
Thomas scored a season-best 13 points, while Oliver chipped in with 11 points. Goring tied a Spider season-high--previously set by Katie Holzer--with a game-high 13 boards. Goring also swatted a season-high four blocks.
Shafer improved to 2-0 against App State, while the Spiders recorded their third straight win over the Mountaineers.
Richmond grabbed a season-high 20 steals and caused 27 Mountaineer turnovers. The Spiders have forced an average of 27 opponent turnovers over the past four games.
The Spiders host La Salle in their conference opener Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Robins Center.
