University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
6-7
Morgan State
2-10
Defense, Parson, Tolson Guide Spiders to 54-37 Win
12/28/2016 | Women's Basketball
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. – The University of Richmond women's basketball team (6-7) put on a display of efficiency on Tuesday night in the Robins Center, shooting over 45 percent and holding Morgan State (2-10) south of 25 percent to run away with a 54-37 victory.
Lauren Tolson captained the charge with her first double-double of the season (10 points, 11 rebounds) and the first for any Spider this year. She was one of four Spiders to reach double digits and did so while crossing the 900-point plateau for her career.
Micaela Parson led all scorers with 17 points and grabbed six rebounds to go with four assists. Jaide Hinds-Clarke and Janelle Hubbard each dropped in 10 points as well all while the defense kept Morgan State from having a single double-digit effort.
It was slow going in the early parts of the first quarter but Richmond set the pace after surrendering the first bucket. The Spiders scored the next six points, the first four of which came from reigning Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week Jaide Hinds-Clarke. The two sides seesawed until the 1:44 mark of the first quarter when Parson swiped a pass and went coast-to-coast to put the home side up by six.
With the clock winding down in the first quarter the Spiders forced yet another turnover and ran some offense to find Tolson a pull-up jumper that she buried with 35 seconds left to make it an eight-point game. MSU was unable to match and there was more to come in the second quarter.
Richmond jumped out quickly, first with four-straight points from Hubbard to extend the lead out to 12. Parson gave her team its largest lead of the half with another steal and layup just after a Morgan State timeout with 8:56 to go in the half.
Morgan State was able to cut the lead in half by the 1:35 mark with a triple but Tolson answered immediately with a driving layup. After some defensive struggle it was Parson that got the last look at the basket in the second quarter and she buried a jumper to make it an 11-point halftime lead for the home side.
The Spiders came out hot in the third quarter and immediately went about expanding their lead. Ragan Wiseman forced Morgan State into a timeout following a deep triple with 6:41 left that pushed Richmond ahead by 15 but by the 4:49 mark it was an 18-point Spider lead. Tolson collected her double-double with 4:05 left and Richmond pushed ahead by 19 by the end of the quarter.
It took over two minutes for either team to find the bottom of the bucket in the fourth quarter but after Parson made it a 21-point game at the 7:59 mark, Coach Shafer emptied the bench, rotating in a variety of Spiders the rest of the way en route to a second-straight victory.
The Spiders have completed their non-conference slate and will now set their sights on A-10 play and prepare to welcome Saint Joseph's to the Robins Center at 2 p.m. on Saturday (Dec. 31).
