University of Richmond Athletics
Murphy's Career Performance Not Enough In Loss To Virginia
12/30/2015 | Women's Basketball
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The University of Richmond women's basketball team (7-6) concluded non-conference play at Virginia (10-4) on Tuesday night with a 71-51 loss to the hot-shooting Cavaliers in John Paul Jones Arena. Janelle Hubbard scored eight points and will be three points shy of the 1,000-point plateau when she takes the floor at La Salle on Saturday.
Richmond freshman Taisha Murphy posted a career-high 14 points on 5-7 shooting and 4-6 from three-point range to lead the Spiders in the scoring column for the first time in her career. Salita Greene and Micaela Parson joined Hubbard with eight points each and Karleigh Wike followed up her double-double on Monday with six points and six rebounds on Tuesday. Both Hubbard and Wike were named to the All-Tournament team.
Richmond took the opening tip in this one but turned it over on its first possession. Micaela Parson made up for it on the other end however as she stepped in front of a post entry pass and went coast-to-coast for an easy lay-in to put the Spiders up 2-0. On the next Richmond possession, Hubbard had her jumper blocked but Salita Greene recovered the loose ball and converted inside to make it 4-0.
Virginia responded with a 9-0 run over the next 1:45 to force Coach Shafer to call a timeout. Parson and Hubbard halted the run on the next UVA possession. Parson stole another post entry and found Hubbard in transition for a six-foot jumper to make it 9-6.
Trailing 15-8 with less than 20 seconds to play, Taisha Murphy missed a three ball and UVA took the rebound, drove the lane on the other end and converted as the buzzer sounded to make it a 17-8 lead for the Cavaliers after one.
Virginia began the second quarter red hot from the floor and by the three-minute mark was shooting 50 percent for the game and 33 percent from deep. Richmond struggled shooting from the floor but went on a mini-run during the later half of the second quarter, 6-0, to make it 38-21 as the clocked dipped below one minute. The two teams traded baskets before time expired to make it 41-23 Virginia at the break.
Parson led the Spiders in the first half with six points while Hubbard, Powell and Greene all added four. Karleigh Wike had two points and three rebounds in the first half after posting her first-career double-double during Monday's win over Lafayette. The Spiders shot 36 percent from the floor but UVA lit it up with a 47.6 percent clip including a 4-12 mark from deep to help build the gap. In total, Virginia took 13 more shots than the Spiders during the first half.
The Richmond offense had a little more rhythm in the third frame but Virginia stayed hot from the floor and on the boards, besting the Spiders 19-2 in second chance points to that point in the game. Hubbard scored four points to give her eight for the game and just three shy of 1,000 but the Spiders trailed 59-34 after a half-court heave from UVA went down at the buzzer.
Freshman guard Taisha Murphy found her stroke in the fourth quarter. She hit three of five tries from long range in the game, two of which came early in the fourth to give her a career-best nine points. Her triple off the glass cut the UVA lead to 19, 63-44 with 4:54 to play in the game. Murphy later added a lay-up in transition off of a feed from Hubbard to make her the lone Spider to reach double figures on Tuesday night. Murphy's performance is the first double-digit scoring output of the freshman's career.
Virginia held off the Spiders charge the rest of the way to come away with the victory and move to 10-4 for the season. Richmond drops to 7-5 heading into A-10 play this weekend.
The Spiders have concluded the non-conference slate of games and will begin Atlantic 10 play on Saturday morning with an 11 a.m. tip off at La Salle. The game will air live on the CBS Sports Network and will be the first A-10 road game for the Spiders who will follow it up with a pair of home games opposite Dayton and Rhode Island.
