Spider Defense on Full Display Nearly Takes Down Fordham, 43-38

Sunday, January 21

Robins Center

2:00 PM

University of Richmond

7-13 (2-5)

Fordham

15-5 (6-1)

Fordham

Richmond

Spider Defense on Full Display Nearly Takes Down Fordham, 43-38

01/21/2018 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Matt Moretti III (@Moretts13)

UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. – The University of Richmond women's basketball team (7-13, 2-5 Atlantic 10) gave one of the top teams in the Atlantic 10, Fordham (15-5, 6-1 A-10), everything it could handle and more on Sunday afternoon, battling back from deficits again and again before ultimately taking the loss, 43-38.

In by far the lowest scoring game of Richmond's season, the Spider defense came alive with perhaps its best performance. The Rams came in averaging 60.3 points per game and the Spiders had been allowing 71.3. Fordham's 43 points are the fewest by a Spider opponent so far this season and the lowest since Old Dominion dropped 45 on Nov. 26.

Fordham led by as many as seven points in the second quarter but Richmond battled back at every turn and even held a two-point lead, 38-36 with 3:05 to go. But the Rams managed to clamp down and close the game on a 7-0 run to secure victory.

The Spiders were led, as they have been all season by Micaela Parson who scored 17 points and pulled down five rebounds to go with four steals. Alicia Hudalla played perhaps the most balanced game of her career. She scored four points to go with six rebounds but also posted career-highs with three assists and two steals in a season-high 34 minutes before fouling out in the closing moments. Off the bench, Jaide Hinds-Clarke scored six points and had five boards, a block and a steal for good measure.

The pace was frenetic early on and the score was knotted at six by the first media timeout of the afternoon. Fordham jumped ahead by five, 11-6 with 1:07 to go in the quarter but Micaela was able to draw a foul in the final seconds to leave the Spiders with just a three-point deficit entering the second quarter.

The scoring slowed down as both defenses settled into the flow of the game. Fordham built its largest lead of the game, 19-12, with 3:53 to play in the half but that was the last of the points for the Rams. Hinds-Clarke stuck a jumper at the 2:54 mark, Micaela added a pair of free throws then came up with a steal and score in transition with 34 seconds left to make it a one-point game, 19-18, at the break.

Fordham jumped out to a five-point lead in the third but a quick, 6-0, run from Richmond, capped off by a Hinds-Clarke lay-in in transition gave the home side its fist lead of the second half, 25-24, at the 4:35 mark. The game would be tied twice more in the frame and Richmond led by as many as three with 2:02 to go but Fordham closed the quarter with four-straight to take a one-point advantage into the fourth and final quarter.

Trailing by four, 36-32, with 6:34 to play, Amy Duggan came up with a steal underneath the Fordham bucket and Coach Shafer called timeout to settle things down. Just over a minute later Micaela knocked down back-to-back 15-footers to tie the game then Hudalla came up with a steal and went coast-to-coast to give Richmond the lead, 38-36, with 3:05 to play.

That was all offensively for Richmond however as the Fordham defense was able to come back, take the lead and extend it down the stretch at the free throw line to pick of the road win.

Richmond will now turn its attention to the unbeaten Dayton Flyers (14-4, 7-0) who will visit the Robins Center on Wednesday (Jan. 24) for a 7 p.m. tip.

Prior to Sunday's game, head coach Michael Shafer and the family of late Spider coach Ginny Doyle, celebrated with the Spider faithful the presentation of the first "Ginny Doyle Scholarship" to sophomore forward Jaide Hinds-Clarke.

The Ginny Doyle Scholarship was established in memory of Virginia T. Doyle, through the generosity of her family, friends, and colleagues to be awarded to a Women's Basketball student-athlete that displays Ginny-Like qualities of strong loyalty and leadership.