Budnik’s 20 Points Lifts Spiders to Victory over No.12 Dayton in A-10 Championship Second Round

Thursday, March 2

Wilmington, De.

1:30 p.m.

University of Richmond

19-9,8-6Atlantic 10

Dayton

7-21,5-10Atlantic 10

Dayton

Richmond

Budnik’s 20 Points Lifts Spiders to Victory over No.12 Dayton in A-10 Championship Second Round

03/02/2023 | Women's Basketball

Box Score A-10 Bracket

WILMINGTON, De. – Behind a team-high 20 points from junior Addie Budnik, the University of Richmond Women's Basketball team opened its postseason campaign with a 71-60 win over No. 12 Dayton Thursday afternoon, posting its first A-10 Championship Tournament victory since the 2020-2021 season. With the win, The Spiders improved to 19-9 overall while the Flyers finished the season at 7-21. The Spiders are set to take on No. 4 seed Fordham on Friday at 1:30 p.m. inside Chase Fieldhouse.

"We played a really tough game today," said Head Coach Aaron Roussell. "I thought our execution the last five minutes was huge. They kept it close and played well. I thought we hung around as it was a back-and-forth game, but in the last five minutes, we executed our game plan perfectly."

The Spiders shot 27 of 61 (44.3%) from the line, 5 of 18 (27.8%) from deep and 12 of 14 (85.7%) from the line. In addition, Richmond also recorded 38 rebounds, 15 assists and seven blocks while the bench chipped in 16 points in the contest. Individually, Budnik was just shy of a double-double with 20 points and eight rebounds as well as freshman Maggie Doogan, who posted nine points and 10 rebounds. Junior Grace Townsend chipped in 15 points in the contest and freshman Rachel Ullstrom was the final Spider in double figures with 14 points. Townsend and Budnik each led the team with four assists each, while Budnik had a team-high five blocks and Townsend had a team-high three thefts.

Townsend began the scoring campaign for the Spiders with a fast-break layup 15 seconds in. After the Flyers recorded a trey to build a 5-2 lead, Budnik responded with a three pointer of her own for 1,003 career points to tie the game at five. After exchanging points, a driving layup from Townsend gave Richmond an 11-9 lead with 1:52 left in the quarter. At the buzzer, a Flyer layup ended the first 10 minutes locked tight at 11 all.

Budnik opened the second quarter with a hoop-and-harm for a 14-11 Spider lead. After UD gained a 16-14 lead from a trey, junior Siobhan Ryan responded with three points of her own to give Richmond back the lead, 17-16. Later in the quarter, a 4-0 run from the Spiders gave UR a 25-22 lead with 3:46 left in the half, but four points from the Flyers gave the visiting team a 29-25 advantage. Two final free throws from Townsend sent the Spiders into the locker room down 29-27.

At the half, the Spiders were led by Budnik and Townsend, who each chipped in six points through the first 20 minutes. Budnik led the way with five boards while Doogan chipped in four along with two points. As a team, the Spiders shot 11 of 33 (33.3%) from the field, 2 of 11 (18.2%) from deep and a perfect 3 of 3 from the line. In addition, UR posted 12 rebounds, including six offensive boards, six dimes, four blocks, six thefts and four points off nine Dayton turnovers.

The Spiders exchanged points with Dayton all throughout the third quarter, with the Spiders having their largest lead of 45-42 at the end of the quarter and Dayton posting its largest lead of 31-27 at the beginning of the quarter. Doogan and Budnik each added seven points throughout the quarter as Doogan collected four boards and Budnik recorded the lone block for the Spiders.

In the final 10 minutes, Townsend propelled the Spiders to a 4-0 start in the fourth quarter with a pair of mid-range jumpers to give Richmond a 48-44 advantage. After the Flyers tied the game at 54, Ullstrom sparked a 17-3 run with huge buckets from Budnik and Townsend to give the Spiders the 71-60 win.