Spiders Drop Close Battle to Long Beach State at Cavalier Classic

Friday, November 26

Charlottesville, VA

2:30 p.m.

University of Richmond

2-3,0-0Atlantic 10

Long Beach State

5-0,0-0Big West

Long Beach St.

Richmond

Spiders Drop Close Battle to Long Beach State at Cavalier Classic

11/26/2021 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Spiders opened up their weekend in Charlottesville at the Cavalier Classic against Long Beach State on Friday, dropping the contest to The Beach by a score of 52-44. Richmond led by one point at halftime and went on to hold Long Beach State to its smallest scoring margin and smallest margin of victory all season.

With the loss, the Spiders fall to 2-3 on the season while Long Beach State improves to a perfect 5-0.

"We played a good team today that really gets you out of your comfort zone. They make it tough to prepare for and tough to run your normal offense," said head coach Aaron Roussell. "We did some good things today but struggled to capitalize around the basket and didn't really get anything at the free throw line either. We are a good offensive team, and I know we will continue to improve and find better ways to score."

Kate Klimkiewicz got things going early in the opening frame for Richmond with back-to-back fastbreak layups, first off a defensive rebound and then off a Long Beach turnover. Her second layup gave the Spiders a 4-2 lead with 7:37 to go in the first. After The Beach retook the lead, a triple from Kylee Lewandowski evened things back up at 7-all before Long Beach State jumped out to a 12-7 lead. Addie Budnik later drained her first triple of the night to pull the Spiders back within two, and Klimkiewicz kept Richmond's deficit at two points to close the frame with a layup in the final 11 seconds to make it 14-12.

Sydney Boone connected for a 3-pointer to cut Richmond's deficit to 16-15 just over a minute into the second quarter, and five straight points for Budnik, including her second trey of the day, gave the Spiders a 20-18 at 5:08. Grace Townsend's stepback triple pushed Richmond's lead to 23-20 with 3:09 to go. Long Beach State got a bucket back almost a minute later, but Richmond was able to hold onto the 23-22 lead going into halftime.

Budnik extended Richmond's lead to 25-22 with a layup in the opening seconds of the third period, but The Beach later went on a 6-0 run to take a 30-26 lead. Townsend cut off that run with a layup to pull Richmond back within two, and Lewandowski's second triple of the day kept things close as she cut the deficit to 32-31 with 5:30 remining in the third frame. Long Beach State, however, responded by pushing its lead to seven points in the closing minutes of the period. A layup from Cayla Williams in the final five seconds sent Richmond into the final 10 minutes trailing 38-35.

Despite a pair of layups from Budnik early in the fourth quarter, Long Beach State pushed its lead up to double-digits for the first time at 49-39 with 3:43 to go in the game. Townsend cut the deficit back down to eight points with a layup at 2:00, and Boone closed out the game with her second triple of the night to make it 52-44 with 21 seconds remaining.

Notables

Friday was the first time Long Beach State was held to less than 61 points all season, and was the first time The Beach won by single digits as all four of their wins prior to today came by 16 points or more.
Richmond won the battle on the boards, outrebounding Long Beach State 43-33. Klimkiewicz pulled down a team-high 12 rebounds, which was two shy of tying a career-high.
Klimkiewicz added a team-high five assists and four steals.
Addie Budnik paced the Spiders with 14 points for her fourth straight double-digit scoring game. She added seven rebounds and a pair of blocks.

Richmond will face host Virginia on Sunday at 4:00 p.m. to close out the Cavalier Classic.

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