Spiders Win Second Straight Behind Budnik’s 20 Points

Wednesday, December 1

Robins Center

6 p.m.

University of Richmond

UMES

Spiders Win Second Straight Behind Budnik’s 20 Points

12/01/2021 | Women's Basketball

Box Score Postgame Press Conference

RICHMOND, Va. – Sophomore Addie Budnik posted her second-straight 20-point game Wednesday night as the Spiders defeated Maryland-Eastern Shore 69-59 at the Robins Center. With their second straight win for the first time this season, the Spiders improve to 4-3 overall on the year while the Hawks drop to 3-4.

"It's good to get a win coming off a big, emotional win for everybody involved on Sunday over in Charlottesville. You always wonder and worry as a coach what those first five minutes are going to look like and how your team is going to bounce back. We had an amazing practice on Monday and, for the most part, a really good practice yesterday, so I thought that was a good sign," said head coach Aaron Roussell. "I thought we came out really strong, moved the ball well, and obviously we were hitting shots. I thought our defense was outstanding. We really made [UMES] uncomfortable. Unfortunately, when shots are going in you start to rely on that a little bit, and I thought we did that throughout the game. We were just way too reliant, even against the zone, on the three. We have to get back to having better balance with that."

Richmond won the tip and scored first for the first time this season and quickly jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the game. Back-to-back triples sent the Spiders into the media timeout with a 15-6 lead at 3:36, and Richmond closed out the first frame with five triples, including two from Kate Klimkiewicz, for a 23-15 lead.

Neither team would score in the second period until 7:50 when Emma Squires fed Budnik under the basket for a layup that pushed Richmond's lead back out to 10 points at 25-15. Claire Holt drilled a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 28-15, and the Spiders led by double-digits for the remainder of the half. All 10 Spider baskets in the first half were assisted, led by Squires and Grace Townsend with three each, and Richmond held a 32-22 lead heading into halftime.

Three early triples for Richmond in the third quarter gave the Spiders a 41-30 lead with 6:10 to go, but the Hawks would claw their way back with an 8-0 run to cut their deficit to 43-40 at 2:09. A layup from Budnik followed by a pair of free throws from Townsend made it 47-40 Richmond with 1:19 remaining, but UMES later hit a three in the closing seconds of the period to make it 47-44.

The Spiders opened the fourth quarter on a 7-0 run and held the Hawks cold on the floor until 6:38. After a couple UMES baskets, Townsend sparked some late momentum for Richmond with a huge block that led to a triple from Aniyah Carpenter that extended Richmond's lead to 60-50 with 3:01 to play. The Hawks came back within five points of the Spiders in the final minute, but Richmond took advantage of seven free throws in the last 34 seconds to secure the double-digit victory.

Notables

Out of Richmond's 20 baskets in the game, 17 of them were assisted, led by Grace Townsend with six. Kate Klimkiewicz added four while Emma Squires finished with three.
The Spiders hit 11 3-pointers in the game, led by Klimkiewicz with a season-high of four. Klimkiewicz finished the night one rebound shy of a double-double with 12 points and nine boards.
Addie Budnik's second consecutive 20-point game paced all scorers in the game, and she has now scored in double figures in six straight games. She shot 8-of-10 from the field and posted five blocks alongside six rebounds in the game.

The Spiders head back out on the road this weekend for a matchup against Ohio. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 4 against the Bobcats.

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