Richmond women’s basketball needed a more exceptional performance on both sides of the ball to overcome Duquesne, one of the top teams in the Atlantic 10, Thursday night.
Richmond’s offensive struggles persisted as they were only able to put up 44 points. The Dukes did an excellent job of keeping Richmond on the perimeter and kept Richmond’s shot count relatively low.
“We have to get some other kids to shoot the basketball, quite frankly even if they miss,” Richmond coach Michael Shafer said after the game. “If you don’t shoot it, and especially if you don’t score, it puts a lot of pressure on the defense.”
Richmond was partially successful defensively against the highest scoring offense in the A-10. The Spiders held Duquesne to only 65 points, which registered as Duquesne’s third-lowest-scoring game of the season.
Duquesne was unable to find one significant weak point in Richmond’s defense, but instead was able to attack from all over the court. The Dukes scored 24 points from beyond the arc, 27 from mid-range and 14 under the basket.
Still, Richmond was able to keep Duquesne’s second highest scorer, Deva’Nyar Workman, to only 8 points. Duquesne’s top scorer, April Robinson, doubled Workman's outfit with 16 points.
Richmond’s defensive effort hit a peak late in the first quarter when sophomore guard Kylie Murphree made a block on a Duquesne fast-break, holding Duquesne to only 16 points in the first quarter. Building off the momentum from their first quarter, Richmond was able to snuff the strong Duquesne offense in the second quarter as well, keeping it to only 13 points.
At the beginning of the third quarter the game remained in reach for Richmond largely because of the defensive effort. With a score of 29-20, Richmond began to slip on both sides of the ball and Duquesne was able to double its lead to 20 points in the third quarter alone.
Janelle Hubbard's 14 points were not enough for the Spiders as they were unable to keep up with Duquesne’s scoring power.
“You can’t score if you don’t shoot,” Shafer said, summing up the Spider’s downfall accurately.
Contact sports editor Charlie Broaddus at charlie.broaddus@richmond.edu
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