Parson Sisters Shine in Loss at Stetson, 67-72

Wednesday, December 20

DeLand, FL

1:00 PM

University of Richmond

5-7

Stetson

7-6

Richmond

Stetson

12/20/2017 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Matt Moretti III (@Moretts13)

DELAND, Fla. – The University of Richmond women's basketball team (5-7) battled 2017 Atlantic Sun regular season champion Stetson (7-6) up and down the floor on Wednesday afternoon but despite another brilliant outing from the Parson sisters, the Spiders were unable to hold off the Hatters, 72-67.

Micaela Parson posted her second double-double in as many games and did so by scoring 17 points to go with a game and career-high 13 rebounds. She also pitched in four assists and a pair of steals for good measure. Meanwhile, Alex was doing her thing by dropping in 19 points to lead the Spiders on the strength of a career-high five triples.

Tonysha Curry added eight points, Jaide Hinds-Clarke had seven and Ragan Wiseman pulled down a career-best nine rebounds in just her second outing of the season after missing the first 10 games with an injury.

The pace was slow at first with just 13 total points scored over the first five minutes and change in this one. The Spiders trailed 8-5 at the time but came out of the media timeout with a 10-2 run that built a 15-10 lead before the home side responded with a 7-0 run to close the quarter with a 17-15 lead.

The second quarter saw the Richmond offense find a little better rhythm behind Micaela Parson handling point guard duties with Kylie Murphree out with an injury and younger sister Alex on the bench with foul trouble.

The Spiders trailed by six, 25-19, with 5:49 to go in the half. Neither side scored again until the 3:15 mark when Micaela drove the lane and converted then knocked down a jumper on the next possession. Stetson responded by pushing the lead back to five but Richmond closed the half on a 7-0 run, capped by a deep triple from Ragan Wiseman with the clock winding down that gave her team a 30-28 advantage at the break.

Micaela stuffed the stat sheet in the first half by scoring seven points to go with eight rebounds, three assists and a steal. She was well on her way to a second consecutive double double. Alex tossed in five points, Hinds-Clarke added six on 3-3 shooting from the floor and Wiseman added four boards to go with her three ball.

There was a lot of basket trading going on in the third quarter, which resulted in six ties and nine lead changes. The home Hatters shot 61 percent in that third quarter but Richmond held serve and used a Dee Hatcher step-back jumper at the buzzer to take a 50-49 advantage into the final quarter break.

The Spiders began the fourth quarter cold, making just one of their first nine shots while the Hatter built a lead as large as 13 by the 3:15 mark in the quarter. Micaela drove and converted in the lane to stop the bleeding and she and her sister did their best to keep the Spiders alive but Stetson was knocking down free throws. The Hatters made 12 of 20 tries from the stripe in the fourth to keep the Spiders at arms length. In the end it was a five-point defeat for Richmond, 72-67.

Richmond will conclude this trip and non-conference play when it takes on Bethune-Cookman on the neutral floor tomorrow at 3 p.m. The Bobcats feature one of the 18 duos of sisters competing on the same team in Division I women's basketball in the Battle sisters. They enter the week combining to average 15.1 points per game. That total ranks eighth among the group, which is led by the Parson sisters who combine to average 30.1.