Spiders Win Seventh Straight Behind Klimkiewicz’s Buzzer-Beater

Wednesday, January 5

Washington, D.C

12 p.m.

University of Richmond

11-4,2-0Atlantic 10

George Washington

7-7,0-1Atlantic 10

Richmond

George Washington

Spiders Win Seventh Straight Behind Klimkiewicz’s Buzzer-Beater

01/05/2022 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Kate Klimkiewicz proved to be the hero Wednesday afternoon as she sank a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to give the Spiders the 66-63 road win over George Washington. The Spiders extended their win streak to seven games and are now 11-4 overall this season, including a 2-0 start to Atlantic 10 play. George Washington falls to 7-7 overall and 0-1 in conference play.

"That was a really hard-fought and character-building win. It was frustrating in some ways as we didn't do a lot of things well, but that's going to happen against good teams in tough environments. We made mistakes, but countless times we had players step up and make big threes in big moments, and we got some great cuts late to get easy baskets when we needed them," said head coach Aaron Roussell. "We executed very well at the end. We got a really good player who was hot in open space, and she made a heck of a play. There are not many players who could make the play that she did. This game will help us tremendously later in the season and as we continue to build the program in the future."

Richmond gave up the first basket in the game but quickly responded with an 11-0 run early in the first, a run that run featured three straight layups from Addie Budnik including back-to-back feeds from Grace Townsend. The Colonials scored seven straight to reel in their deficit to 11-9, but Budnik later knocked down a triple with 37 seconds left in the period to make it 16-11. The Spiders led 16-13 after the first 10 minutes.

An early block for Sydney Boone helped the Spiders start the second quarter off on a 7-0 run to take a 23-13 lead, but GW would respond with an 11-0 run of their own to take their first lead of the game at 29-26. Kate Klimkiewicz sent it into the halftime break all tied up at 29 with a triple in the last 28 seconds of the second.

Townsend opened the third quarter with a triple to retake the lead, and the two teams would go back-and-forth until back-to-back GW baskets evened things back up at 38-all with 4:42 to go in the frame. Katie Hill later swiped three passes and Siobhan hit a pair of triples in the last two minutes to push Richmond's lead up to 48-40. The Colonials got a bucket back in the closing seconds and Richmond led 48-42 heading into the final frame.

A pair of triples for Klimkiewicz put the Spiders up 54-50 at 7:08 in the fourth, but GW did not let up as they once again tied things up at 54-all with 6:26 to go. Townsend drilled one from deep and then back-to-back layups for Hill put the Spiders up 63-56 with 2:29 on the clock, and the Colonials responded with seven straight points to tie it up with :16 left. With the seconds ticking off the clock, Townsend fed Klimkiewicz at the top of the key where she sank the ball from way deep for the buzzer-beating win.

Notables

The Spiders have won seven straight games for the first time since 2004 when they won seven straight from Feb. 13 to Mar. 6, ending the streak against Rhode Island in the A-10 Tournament that year.
This is the first time Richmond has started conference play 2-0 since the 2011-12 season.
The Spiders were held to less than 70 points for the first time since Dec. 1 against UMES, but they shot 50 percent from the field against the league's second-best scoring defense in GW.
With her buzzer-beater, Kate Klimkiewicz dropped a game-high and tied-season high 20 points in her second consecutive game. She also pulled down a team-high eight rebounds.
Grace Townsend was Richmond's second-leading scorer in the game with 14 points alongside four assists.
Addie Budnik and Siobhan Ryan rounded out the Spiders in double-figures with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Katie Hill's career-high three steals all came in a span of 1:17 in the third quarter.

The Spiders are back in action Wednesday, Jan. 12 at Saint Joseph's for a 7 p.m. tip. Saturday's home game against Davidson was recently postponed to Feb. 9 due to COVID issues within the Davidson program.

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