University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
Wichita State
Richmond Rolls To FIU Tournament Final With 63-50 Victory
11/27/2015 | Women's Basketball
MIAMI, Fla. – The University of Richmond women's basketball team (5-0) continued its hot start to the 2015-16 season with a 63-50 victory over 2015 NCAA Tournament team Wichita State (0-4) in the first round of the FIU Turkey Slam tournament in Miami, Fla. The Spiders will advance to play Marquette (1-4) in the championship game on Sunday at Noon.
Sophomore guard Micaela Parson continued her breakout season with a career-high 20 points to lead all scorers on an impressive 7-12 shooting, 5-6 from the free throw line and 1-4 from deep while adding three assists and grabbing four rebounds. Parson nearly matched a career-high with 34 minutes of action in guiding the Spiders to their first 5-0 start since the 2008-09 season, which is also the last time the Spiders won a tournament over Thanksgiving weekend.
Janelle Hubbard tossed in 12 points and Lauren Tolson contributed 11 to put three players in double digits for UR for the fourth time this season. For the third time it was the combination of Parson, Hubbard and Tolson. Hubbard is the lone Spider to score in double figures in all five games this year.
Freshman forward Tuuli Menna had another quality outing, scoring seven points, including her first-career triple on the first possession of the game, to go with eight rebounds, which are a new career best. Karleigh Wike added a season-high four points and Salita Greene came off the bench for four points and three boards.
The Spiders came out hot to start this one with a triple from Menna, lay-in from Wike and jumper from Hubbard to take an early 7-0 lead. Wichita State battled back into the game and a 15-7 run to take the lead with 31 seconds left in the first quarter but Parson canned a jumper as time expired in the first to give Richmond a 16-15 lead at the first break.
The Richmond defense showed why it has been the best in the A-10 so far this season with its effort in the second quarter. The Shockers took a 17-16 lead at the 7:56 mark then after a Parson triple tied the score at 19 with 7:08 to play in the half and that would be all. Richmond held Wichita State without another point for the remainder of the half and jumped out to a 14-point, 33-19 lead before halftime.
In the third quarter Richmond would lead by as many as 18 points on three separate occasions with Tolson and Hubbard finding a rhythm from deep. Wichita State dropped the lead down to 10 with 4:38 left in the quarter but Parson took over and scored the next three for Richmond to push it back to 13. The two teams then traded triples to end the quarter to make 48-35 with 10 minutes to play.
The fourth quarter belonged to Richmond, leading by as many as 19 before emptying the bench en route to the 63-50 victory. The Spiders will be looking to be the first Richmond 6-0 team since the 2008-09 team that started 8-0. Richmond will square off with a Marquette team that dispatched the home-standing FIU Panthers by a score of 95-83. Richmond has not allowed a single opponent to score more than 62 points this season.
