Spider Win Streak Ends at Saint Joseph’s

Wednesday, January 12

Philadelphia, PA

7 p.m.

University of Richmond

11-5,2-1Atlantic 10

Saint Joseph's

5-9,1-1Atlantic 10

Richmond

Saint Joseph's

01/12/2022 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – The University of Richmond women's basketball team saw its win streak come to a close Wednesday night on the road against Saint Joseph's, falling 74-54 to the Hawks.

After trailing by as much as 10 points in the first quarter, the Spiders crawled back to take the lead in the second quarter and trailed by just one point at halftime. Richmond gained a three-point lead in the third frame, but the Hawks, however, went on a 16-0 run in the third that would prove detrimental to Richmond.

Richmond drops to 11-5 overall this season with the loss and 2-1 in Atlantic 10 play. St. Joe's improves to 5-9 overall and 1-1 in conference play.

"Credit to St Joe's today. They took us out of our game, and we just weren't ourselves," said head coach Aaron Roussell. "We weren't able to finish at the basket early and maybe we just played a little tight after that. We toughed through and got the lead in the third quarter, but we never really got into a rhythm like we have as of late. To only have five assists and to shoot as poorly as we did around the rim really put a lot of pressure on ourselves on the defensive end, and we just were not great there either. This will be a character test for our team. We had a good thing going, and we need to get back to the habits that put us where we are now."

Richmond got down 14-4 in the first but fought back with seven straight points to cut the deficit to 14-11 before another five straight points put them at an 18-16 deficit to close the first quarter. An early triple from Claire Holt in the second made it 20-19 in favor of the Hawks, and Emma Squires gave the Spiders their first lead of the game at 31-30 off a jumper with 50 seconds to go in the half. SJU got a bucket back and Richmond trailed 32-31 at the end of the second.

Siobhan Ryan opened the third with a layup and followed that up with a triple to extend Richmond's lead to 38-35 at 7:59, but after the Spiders led 40-39, St. Joe's exploded for a 16-0 run to take a 55-40 lead. Addie Budnik completed an and-one to make it 55-43 with 1:45 to go in the frame, and that's how the period would end. Emma Squires seemed to spark momentum for the Spiders by drilling a 3-pointer in the opening seconds of the fourth, but SJU responded with seven straight points and continued to put the game away.

Notables

The Spiders shot 33.9 percent from the field in the game, which was their worst shooting percentage since the season opener against Charlotte, and their first time shooting below 44.0 percent since Dec. 1 against UMES.
In addition to her tied team-high 11 points and seven rebounds, Kate Klimkiewicz recorded four steals in the game, scoring a basket off two of them.
Grace Townsend also posted 11 points beside three steals.
Addie Budnik and Siobhan each tallied nine points while Budnik pulled down a tied team-high seven boards.

The Spiders return home this Saturday to host the University of Massachusetts at the Robins Center. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m.

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