In the end, New Year's weekend was kind to both local Atlantic 10 women's basketball teams, as Richmond upended Saint Joseph's 70-52 Saturday at the Robins Center as four Spiders scored in double figures.
Lauren Tolson and Micaela Parson (below, #11) led Richmond (1-0, 7-7) with 17 points, while Janelle Hubbard shot fifty percent from the floor en route to 16 points, and two-time Atlantic 10 Rookie of The Week honoree Jaide Hinds-Clarke added 12 points, going five for seven from the field.
The Spiders, who have at times struggling offensively, poured in 26 points in the second quarter as they built a 41-26 halftime lead, shooting 66.7 percent from the field in the second. A cold third period, however, netted just ten points, but the Hawks (0-1, 3-10) couldn't take advantage, struggling themselves from the field to shave into the deficit by just three points, trailing 51-39 entering the final quarter.
Richmond put the game away down the stretch with a combination of timely shooting and stingy defense, leading by as many as twenty before taking the eighteen-point victory.
"We haven't been able to score and it hasn't made a whole lot of sense to us because we haven't really hit shots," head coach Michael Shafer said in a post-game interview aired on SpiderTV. "We looked back at tape from last year and this year, and we've had the same looks, had the same offensive set, the same stuff. Not being defended differently. We haven't hit them, and I thought we did a really good job of hitting the open shots and playing with a little bit of confidence on the offensive end."
For VCU, it was a matter of overcoming a cold start and trying to contend with the Atlantic 10's leading scorer in La Salle's Amy Griffin Sunday at the Siegel Center. The Rams began to warm up from the field, shooting 44 percent in the second quarter, shutting down Griffin after six early points, and taking a 26-23 lead to the locker room at halftime.
The critical stretch for the Rams (1-1, 8-7) was the third period, where VCU outscored La Salle, who had won eight of their last nine games coming into the Siegel Center Sunday, 20-12, holding the Explorers to 20 percent shooting from the field to build a 46-35 lead. But La Salle stayed alive in the third via the free throw line, returned there and got some timely three-pointers to cut deeply into VCU's lead in the final stanza before the Rams were able to seal the win at the free throw line themselves, hitting nine of twelve at the stripe for a 61-56 victory.
Head Coach Beth O'Boyle believes that her team's overall record is quite deceiving for those on the outside looking in, those who haven't followed the team so far this season. A schedule designed to be difficult, designed to prepare her players for the rigors of Atlantic 10 play, helped pay dividends in this victory, especially with having to deal with a player like Griffin, who hit a late three to give her 17 points, which was under her 21.2 point per game average.
"We talked a lot about Griffin, she's a fantastic player," O'Boyle noted. "She can create her own shots so we really challenged our players on it. We tried to mix up what we were doing defensively. They run a lot of ball screens and you're trying to make sure everybody's on the same page, trying to upset that rhythm. Coaches can come up with all these great ideas, but if your players don't believe in it, don't go out there and execute, you can't do anything. I'm really lucky that these guys all buy in and play so hard."
Curteeona Brelove (below, #25) continued her strong play, leading the Rams with 20 points and eight rebounds, battling all day with the significant height of La Salle's interior defense. Mooriah Rowser was six-for-ten from the field, including two-for-two beyond the arc to score 16 points, while Keira Robinson added nine points and had four assists, enough to place her third all-time in VCU history with 426, five behind 1989 graduate Kelly Hoover for second all-time (431).
Attention for both teams now turn on each other, as the Spiders make the 6.1 mile trek to Siegel for the first of two regular season meetings between Richmond and VCU. In what has been a topsy-turvy season so far in the Atlantic 10, VCU will feel the pressure of holding serve at home, while Richmond will try to steal a road victory, which must be done, multiple times, if you hope to either earn one of the two byes out of the new first round of the Atlantic 10 Championship Tournament, or, at worst, finish in the top eight so you can host a first round game at your arena, rather than travel to someone else's with a trip to the Richmond Coliseum and the tournament quarterfinals at stake.
Tip-off is set for 7pm Thursday night. The game will be live tweeted on The RVA Sports Network at @TheRVASportsNet as part of our new year-long "Year Of Women's Sports" initiative, using the hashtag #RVAW. The game can also be seen live on CBS Sports Network.
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