University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
2-3
FAU
3-2
Resilient Spiders Claim FAU Thanksgiving Tournament Title, 77-67
11/26/2016 | Women's Basketball
BOCA RATON, Fla. – Resiliency was the key on Saturday afternoon as the University of Richmond women's basketball team (3-3) fought off multiple large deficits against FAU (3-3) before pulling away in the end to claim its first Thanksgiving Tournament title since 2012 and claim its third-straight victory, 77-67.
The Spiders had their best shooting performance of the season from long range, going 7-15 (46.7 percent) to overcome multiple 10 and nine point FAU leads, one of which came late in the third quarter. One major difference in the game came at the free throw line where the Spiders made 20 of 23 attempts to pull away in this one. Janelle Hubbard was named the Tournament MVP and Lauren Tolson was named to the All-Tournament team.
Janelle Hubbard was arguably as good shooting the ball as she ever has been, going 10-19 from the floor, 4-4 from deep and 6-6 from the free throw line to account for her 30 points; a season-high and just two shy of her career-high. She finished the game with exactly 1,400 points in her career, which moves her past Amber Goppert (1,398) and into eighth on the Richmond all-time scoring list.
Lauren Tolson canned a season-high 17 points, most of which came in the second half for her best performance, by far, since returning from a season-ending injury a year ago. Freshman Jaide Hinds-Clarke cashed in a career-best nine points on 4-4 shooting while fellow freshman Ragan Wiseman came alive for nine points as well, both off the bench. The Richmond bench outscored FAU, 39-33 in this one.
Both sides emphasized working in the half court in the early going and both sides traded baskets as a result early on. Hubbard got the scoring started for Richmond but FAU was hot from the floor, shooting 9-17 to score 23 first quarter points. Richmond trailed, 20-10, with just over one minute to play but the Spiders closed on a 7-3 run to cut the lead to just six at the quarter break.
Hubbard stayed hot from the floor, keeping the Spiders alive with 13 of the first 19 points but FAU was holding a 10-point lead by the 4:32 mark in the second quarter. Tolson and Murphree scored their first points to cut the lead to six but FAU finally answered with 1:50 left to push the lead back to eight. The Spiders showed some resiliency once again however; closing the half on a 7-2 run capped off by a Ragan Wiseman triple just before time expired to leave the deficit at just three heading into the locker room.
Janelle Hubbard finished with 15, first half points helping the Spiders to a 37 percent effort shooting the ball. Tolson was the second-leading scorer for Richmond in the first half with four, followed by Wiseman and Menna who each added a three ball.
Trailing by eight, 49-41, at the media timeout with 3:33 on the clock in the third quarter, something clicked for the Spiders. Wiseman started it with two free throws, Tolson followed with a layup then it was Hubbard scoring four straight, including a jumper at the buzzer to close the quarter with a 51-51 tie.
Jaide started the scoring for the Spiders in the fourth quarter to push Richmond ahead for the first time all afternoon. The two sides traded baskets until the 7:01 mark when Hubbard hit her first of three, fourth quarter triples to push the Spiders ahead for good. Tolson was the story down the stretch as she went on to make all six of her free throw tries to put this one away.
Richmond will return to the court next weekend in Annapolis, Md. for the Navy Classic. There the Spiders will do battle with Liberty (Dec. 3) and Cleveland State (Dec. 4).
