Townsend’s Go-Ahead Bucket Lifts Richmond At St. Bonaventure, 59-58

Friday, January 8

Olean, NY

6PM

University of Richmond

4-3,1-1Atlantic 10

St. Bonaventure

1-5,0-3Atlantic 10

Richmond

St. Bonaventure

Townsend’s Go-Ahead Bucket Lifts Richmond At St. Bonaventure, 59-58

01/08/2021 | Women's Basketball

Box Score UR vs. Bonnies Box

OLEAN, N.Y. – The University of Richmond women's basketball team survived a late rally from St. Bonaventure as freshman Grace Townsend's layup with 38 seconds remaining proved to be the game-winner in a 59-58 road win Friday night at the Reilly Center. The Bonnies had the ball with six seconds left and were unable to get a shot off giving Richmond its first Atlantic 10 win of the season.

"Winning on the road is hard, and we had to work incredibly hard for this one," head coach Aaron Roussell said. "We made some mistakes at the end and they made us pay for them, thankfully building a lead in that fourth quarter allowed us to survive those errors. We made some clutch plays throughout, but Grace's bucket in the last minute was big time."

The Spiders improve to 4-3 on the season and are 1-1 in the A-10 after picking up a huge road win to start 2021. UR shot 38.9 percent from the field (21-for-54) and only 21.1 (4-for-19) from the three-point line. The Spiders outrebounded St. Bonaventure 39-38 despite sophomore Elaina Chapman (Richmond, Va.) finishing with just one rebound after dealing with foul trouble.

Junior Kate Klimkiewicz (Oakton, Va.) led the team with 18 points and pulled down a team-best nine rebounds. Klimkiewicz went 7-for-12 from the floor and swiped four steals in the victory. Junior Claire Holt (Hoover, Ala.) had 12 points and was 2-for-5 from downtown. Freshman Addie Budnik (Highland Park, Ill.) added 12 points, six rebounds, three assists and two blocks. Townsend finished with five points and four assists off the bench.

St. Bonaventure made a furious comeback in the fourth quarter erasing an 11-point lead to tie the game at 54-54. The Bonnies were down 54-43 with 5:24 left and went on an 11-0 run thanks multiple three-pointer from Olivia Brown. Asianae Johnson tied the game with a free throw with 2:18 remaining. Freshman Siobhan Ryan (Buffalo, N.Y.) put the Spiders back up 56-54 with a layup at the two-minute mark. Johnson tied the game again with a jumper with 1:44 left. Johnson made two free throws to cut the lead to 59-58 with 11 seconds left but Richmond was able to hold on.

Richmond took a 32-26 lead at halftime after scoring 24 points in the paint and 13 points from Klimkiewicz. The Spiders only shot 12.5 percent from the three-point line (1-for-8) but did their damage in the paint.

The Spiders opened the game with a 5-0 run and held St. Bonaventure scoreless until a layup from Asianae Johnson with 6:20 on the clock. Freshman Grace Townsend (Midlothian, Va.) and Budnik made back-to-back layups to push the lead to 9-3. The Bonnies answered with a 9-3 run to tie the game at 12-12 with 2:03 left in the quarter. UR ended the first quarter with a 7-0 run thanks to a couple of layups from Klimkiewicz.

In the second quarter, the Spiders were outscored 14-13 but still held a six-point halftime lead. St. Bonaventure got within five points a couple of times but Richmond wouldn't let them get closer. Holt hit a three-pointer with 1:56 on the clock to go ahead 32-24 but Kaitlyn Parker made a jumper to make it 32-26.

The Spiders held the Bonnies to just 11 points in the third quarter and lead by 10 points 47-37. Holt scored seven of the team's 15 points in the third quarter. Senior Alex Parson (North Chesterfield, Va.) did a solid job defensively holding Johnson to just three points in the third. Richmond finished the game with just 12 turnovers.

"This one will make us a better team down the stretch, we survived some foul trouble and remember we haven't played in a while, really only twice in the last 33 days," added Roussell. To get this one was huge."

The Spiders finish the road trip by heading to Pittsburgh to face Duquesne on Sunday, Jan. 10 at 2 p.m.

For all the latest information on the team, follow SpiderWBBall on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

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