Thursday, December 15, 2011

Richmond spanks N.C. State; W&M outlasts NC A&T

Thursday's results:

Richmond 72, North Carolina St. 58: The Spiders' best win of the season? Given the quality of the opponent, the venue - the Wolfpack came in 5-0 this season at Reynolds Coliseum - and the emphatic nature in which they pulled it off, this gets our vote. Frankly, we didn't see the Spiders winning this game, and we became even more wary of their chances when leading scorer Abby Oliver, who appeared to be forcing things early, picked up her second foul and left the game at the 10:23 mark with the Spiders trailing 19-17. But freshman point guard Keri Soppe and hoopster/soccer All-American Becca Wann led a stunning Richmond surge that allowed the Spiders to take command of the game with their best player on the bench. Soppe scored 10 of her career-high 12 points and dished out 4 of her 7 assists in that first half, and Wann added 7 first-half points in just 7 minutes as the Spiders took a 38-32 lead into intermission. Oliver made up for lost time after the break by scoring 15 of her team-high 17 points. For the game, the Spiders (8-2) shot 50.9 percent from the field and made 8 of their 15 3-pointers while limiting the Wolfpack to just 31-percent shooting.  And while we've mentioned Soppe, Wann and Oliver, everyone had a hand in the Spiders' success, from Gen Okoro's 9 points and 9 rebounds to Amber Battle, who made the only shot she attempted, a 3-pointer, on the campus where her parents starred as college basketball players in the 1980s.

William and Mary 74, North Carolina A&T 68: As was the case in their double-overtime victory at Norfolk State, this was a game the Tribe probably would have lost last year. But after blowing a 13-point second half lead and falling behind by 4 with less than 3 minutes left, the newly never-say-die Tribe dug in and scored 12 of the game's final 14 points, a run punctuated by Janine Aldridge's cold-blooded 3-pointer with 30 seconds left that sealed the deal. It was the fifth 3-pointer of the night for Aldridge, who finished with a game-high 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Emily Correal added 15 points and Jaclyn McKenna chipped in 12 for William and Mary (5-3), which shot 51.7 percent from the field and had 23 assists on their 31 field goals. And it took those kinds of numbers to subdue a resilient A&T team that has already beaten Clemson and will likely win a whole bunch of games in the MEAC.

Liberty 82, Virginia Union 37: Avery Warley had 22 points and 11 rebounds in just 18 minutes as the Lady Flames (5-5) did the expected against overmatched Union. Jasmine Gardner had 14 points, Devon Brown 13 and freshman Catherine Kearney 11 for the Lady Flames, who won the rebounding battle 68-35. Valentina Wheeler led Union with 14 points and Vicki Collier, who formerly played for Old Dominion, added 11.

Marshall 62, Longwood 48: Brittanni Billups had 13 points and 9 rebounds to pace the Lancers, who kept things close until midway through the second half. Erin Neal and Chelsea Coward each added 10 points for Longwood (2-7), which is still in search of that elusive first road win.

No comments:

Post a Comment