Richmond didn't lay an egg at Xavier, but Old Dominion hatched one in Norfolk against a VCU team that never wavered in toughness.
Though the Spiders lost to the seventh-ranked Musketeers, it was hardly the debacle it was two weeks ago against Dayton.
Meanwhile, JMU and George Mason had their CAA games postponed due to snow and Old Dominion got buried in its own gym. The 19-point loss was the biggest CAA loss for the Lady Monarchs ever in Norfolk.
Sunday's results:
Virginia Commonwealth 75, Old Dominion 56
What was supposed to be a big game turned into a big whipping for the Lady Monarchs (11-10, 9-2), who not only didn't defend their house, they didn't defend. They couldn't score and they got outworked and outhustled by a charged-up Rams team that restored its place atop the CAA with ODU (Drexel's game vs. JMU was postponed until Monday). Remember last year when these two played in Norfolk? VCU (16-2, 9-7-2) should've won then, too, and senior D'Andra Moss remembers that and the other two losses VCU has endured at the Constant Center the last four years. "I know Old Dominion," Moss said. "They were the Tennessee of women's basketball for many, many years. We've got bigger fish to fry, but we've never won here, and it's good to get it done." VCU showed no signs of the team that got flattened by James Madison on Thursday, and ODU showed no sign of the team they've been the first half of the conference season.
Georgia State 63, William and Mary 60
Tiffany Benson scored her 1,000th point and Janine Aldridge set a school mark with 7 3-pointers. Milestones are nice, we'll bet Debbie Taylor prefers wins. Taysha Pye nearly sent it to OT, but her trey rimmed out at the buzzer. That didn't lose it, though. Point guard Crystal Johnson paced Georgia State with 12 points, 11 assists and 12 boards. W&M (10-12, 3-8) missed 10 free throws and Benson was the main culprit, misfiring on eight. Free-throw shooting is a fixable problem, and until the Tribe fixes it, they won't win many games.
No. 7 Xavier 67, Richmond 55
The Spiders didn't win. But they made the top team in the league sweat it out. This game was tied at 52, but Richmond (15-8, 4-4 A-10) did not have a field goal in the final 4:15. "It wasn't much of an escape (because we pulled it together when we needed to," said Musketeers senior Dee Dee Jernigan. "Richmond is a good team that made shots, tough shots, when they needed to. But we pulled it together at the end of the game." Ta'Shia Phillips pounced on 16 rebounds to the Spiders' 27. Richmond sophomore guard Abby Oliver earned her career high with 19 points. A tad more Spider offense could have made this the signature win of the season.
NC State 70, Virginia Tech 57
Good news, Hokies (12-11, 2-7 ACC). Savannah State is on tap. Surely that will end Tech's four-game losing streak, though it's far from the ACC win they could use right now. Lindsay Biggs rediscovered her game, but down the stretch, nobody could score. The Wolfpack finished the game on a 29-9 run to keep their perfect 11-0 record vs. Tech intact.
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