Squires Drops 27 Points in Senior Day Loss to Rhode Island

Saturday, February 19

Richmond, Va.

4 p.m.

University of Richmond

14-13,5-9Atlantic 10

Rhode Island

21-4,11-1Atlantic 10

Rhode Island

Richmond

Squires Drops 27 Points in Senior Day Loss to Rhode Island

02/19/2022 | Women's Basketball

Box Score Postgame Press Conference

RICHMOND, Va. – Richmond women's basketball took Rhode Island down to the wire Saturday evening, but the Spiders were slightly edged out by the Rams in the final minutes, falling 69-66 on senior day at the Robins Center.

Richmond (14-13, 5-9 A-10) trailed Rhode Island (21-4, 11-1 A-10) by 11 points at halftime but exploded to outscore the Rams 21-11 in the third quarter. After trailing by 14 points with 6:08 to go in the third, senior Emma Squires heated up and shot a perfect 7-of-7 from the field in the second half, including 6-of-6 beyond the arc, to help the Spiders trail by just one point at the end of the third and tie the game on two occasions in the fourth.

"This is not the result you want, and I don't think any of our players or coaches are going to walk out of here feeling awesome about a loss, but I also have to understand that was a really, really good team that we played against. Not only was it a really good team, but they played very well," said head coach Aaron Roussell. "I thought our kids played really well today, and I thought we competed really hard. That's as good of a defensive team as we'll see all season and to shoot 58 percent, a lot of that was Emma [Squires], makes me really proud. I'm really proud of the effort. We did a lot of great things, and hopefully we can continue to play like that."

Senior Kate Klimkiewicz swiped a pass in the game's opening seconds and took it all the way in for a layup to get Richmond on the board first 14 seconds into the first quarter, and shortly after, senior Molly Mraz hit a pair of free throws to tie it up at 4-4 before checking out of the game. Addie Budnik's layup at 3:47 pulled Richmond with two at 11-9, but the Spiders would trail 20-13 at the end of the first.

Grace Townsend set up back-to-back baskets for Richmond early in the second, and an and-one for Siobhan Ryan later made it 34-28 at 4:17. Sydney Boone knocked down a triple with a minute to go, but Rhode Island hit a jumper at the buzzer to take a 42-31 lead going into halftime.

After their deficit reached 14 midway through the third, the Spiders hit two straight triples while holding Rhode Island scoreless for three minutes. Richmond tore through the last 2:26 of the third frame on a 12-2 run, featuring three treys from Squires, to trail 53-52 going into the final frame.

Squires put up five straight to even things up at 57-57 with 4:46 remaining in the fourth, and then a minute later she drained her seventh triple to tie things up again at 60-60. The Rams went up 66-62 with just over a minute to go, and with 22 seconds left, Townsend layed one up off the inbound to pull the Spiders within two points at 68-66 and force a Rhode Island timeout. Richmond called a timeout after a jump ball with 11 seconds left, and Townsend earned a trip to the line with 2.4 seconds on the clock but was not able to convert her free throw opportunities. The Rams snagged the rebound on Townsend's second attempt and earned their own trip to the line where Dez Elmore missed her second attempt. Maya Ettle pulled down the rebound and Richmond called timeout with 0.3 on the clock, but could not get a shot off before the buzzer.

Notables

The Spiders outrebounded the Rams 34-30 in the game and shot 58.1 percent from the field compared to Rhode Island's 41.8 percent, but the Rams attempted 67 shots compared to Richmond's 43.
Emma Squires drained a career-high seven 3-pointers, which is tied for second-most in a single game in school history. She shot 10-of-11 in the game including 7-of-8 from three to finish with a game-high 27 points, one point shy of tying a career-high. Twenty of those points came in the second half alone.
Addie Budnik dished out a career-high six assists alongside six rebounds and two blocks.
Grace Townsend was one assist shy of a double-double, finishing her night with 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting and nine assists. She also drew three fouls and pulled down four rebounds.
Siobhan Ryan rounded out the Spiders in double-figures with 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting, 2-of-3 beyond the arc.

The Spiders wrap up their home slate Wednesday, Feb. 23 at 6 p.m. against Fordham.

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