Women’s basketball takes down Appalachian State for sixth win

It’s late November, and the University of Richmond women’s basketball team still has yet to lose a game. 

In fact, the Spiders have had such a successful season up to this point that UR even secured two votes in the Associated Press’ most recent NCAA Division I top-25 rankings, which were announced on Nov. 18. 

The Spiders punctuated this win streak with a 73-61 victory away against Appalachian State University on Nov. 24, moving their record to 6-0 on the young season. 

“A great win against a great opponent,” UR Head Coach Aaron Roussell said in a postgame press conference. “To sit here and be 6-0 is a great thing. I know we have a gauntlet of a stretch coming, but this was an important one to get, and I thought it would be a challenge and it definitely was.” 

Although UR ultimately pulled out the road win, it wasn’t until the second half that the Spiders took control of the game. It was the Mountaineers, actually, who began the game in the driver’s seat, leading the Spiders 11-4 in the early minutes of the first quarter. 

Over the course of the first half, UR was consistently playing catch up with Appalachian State on the scoreboard, as the Mountaineers got off to a hot start from 3-point range. The Spiders, on the other hand, could not get their shots to fall. 

By halftime, the Spiders had tied things up with Appalachian State, 30-30, but 10 first-half turnovers and just a 1-for-13 shooting clip from behind the arc across the first 20 minutes of gameplay barred UR from surging ahead of its opponent as it had in previous games this season – its 82-47 win over the College of William & Mary on Nov. 21 being the perfect example. 

The second half, however, was where the Spiders fell into their groove. 

UR’s first lead of the game came in the early seconds of the third quarter, and from that point onward, the Spiders did not trail for the remainder of the contest. They outscored the Mountaineers 43-31 in the second half en route to the win. 

Junior forward Maggie Doogan came alive in the second half offensively, propelling the Spiders toward some separation on the scoreboard. By the time the buzzer sounded in the fourth quarter, Doogan had put up a performance reminiscent of her efforts last season when she garnered Atlantic 10 All-Conference First Team honors. 

Doogan finished with 23 points and nine rebounds. Graduate forward Addie Budnik also scored in double-figures and, like Doogan, had a near-double-double with nine rebounds of her own.

Over the course of the contest, the Spiders shot just 4-for-25 from 3-point land on a 16% clip, while Appalachian State held the advantage from range, shooting 31.03%. The Spiders finished the game shooting 44.44% overall from the field. 

“Unfortunately for us, we just didn’t make a lot of shots today,” Roussell said. “And that’s been the challenge for us over the years, is can we still find ways to do things well and play well when we’re not making shots. And I thought this was a great opportunity to do it and I thought we did that very, very well.” 

UR’s next game is against Oakland University at 11 a.m. on Nov. 29. This matchup against the Golden Grizzlies is the first of two games the Spiders will play as part of the Daytona Beach Classic. Game two is against Oklahoma State University at 5:45 p.m. the next day on Nov. 30. 

Contact sports editor Jimmy James at jimmy.james@richmond.edu.