College basketball in March elicits a range of emotions.
One minute, you’re riding the highest of highs, celebrating the most significant victory in your program’s history, then you come back down to reality and realize a quick turnaround to play one of the top teams in the country is looming a little over 48 hours away.
For the University of Richmond women’s basketball team, such was the case from the minute the buzzer sounded against Georgia Tech on March 21, when the Spiders had won an NCAA Tournament game for the first time since their inaugural bid to the Big Dance in 1990, all the way up to the tip of their Round of 32 bout with the University of California, Los Angeles.
And while the Spiders’ winning ways were ultimately short-lived in this year’s trip to March Madness, losing 84-67 to the one-seeded Bruins, this was one of those games where the scoreboard doesn’t tell the whole story.
At first glance when looking at the final box score, it may show the Spiders lost by 17 to a team that was ranked within the top five in all 20 weeks of this season’s Associated Press’ top-25 poll and has five alumni currently on rosters in the WNBA. But for much of the game, UR’s squad proved it could hang in there with some of the best competition in the nation in the form of UCLA.
By the first timeout, the Spiders held an 11-10 lead, and continued to fend off any offensive bursts by the Bruins that would lead to a lopsided scoreboard.
“Our kids battled tonight,” UR Head Coach Aaron Roussell said in a postgame press conference. “They belonged on the floor with the best team in the country, number one team in the country tonight.”
The Spiders’ cutting, paired with well-timed passing, led to baskets not even UCLA’s tallest players could stop. And that was something UR had to do its best to try to eliminate all game – the height advantage the Bruins held, especially with their leading scorer, 6 foot 7 Lauren Betts, who ended up dominating the paint en route to UCLA’s victory.
By the end of the first quarter, the Spiders held a two-point lead, and proved to be in control of the game. While the Bruins were able to close the gap heading into halftime, with the score tied at 36, the contest was still in anyone’s grasp with 20 minutes still to play.
This was evident after the game when, even though Bruins had ultimately won, ESPN still saw UCLA as “surviving a scare,” referring to a potential UR upset.
The second half was where the Bruins began to overpower the Spiders. After matching one another offensively to begin the third quarter, the tenor of the game then changed for UR.
What started as a manageable deficit of 11 points eventually swelled to a 22-point UCLA lead heading into the final 10 minutes of gameplay. Suddenly, the Spiders were far removed from what was at one time a two-point lead through one quarter and a tie through one half.
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After only tallying seven points as a team in the third quarter – something UR had not been used to being on the receiving end of, as they were usually the team holding teams to single digits in a quarter – the Spiders mustered what they had left and outscored the Bruins 24-19 across the final 10 minutes. UR was able to cut the deficit to 15 points, but no more than that when all was said and done.
“I think we got stagnant a little bit in the third quarter, but that was just us not making shots and [UCLA] making shots,” junior forward Maggie Doogan said in a postgame press conference. “And I mean, it happens, it’s basketball. It’s a game of runs, so can’t think about that one too much and you just gotta keep moving on and take the next possession.”
Despite the loss, junior forward Maggie Doogan continued to do what she’s done all season – lead the Spiders on the scoreboard. For someone who, believe it or not, did not score any points in UR’s season opener win over Temple University back in November, Doogan sure made a splash across a two-game stretch at Pauley Pavillion.
Doogan tallied 30 points in the Round of 64 and notched another 27 in the Round of 32. Junior guard Rachel Ullstrom and graduate forward Addie Budnik were UR’s other double-figure scorers, contributing 18 and 10 points, respectively.
“Obviously we lost, but I’m so proud of this group and this program means everything to me,” Budnik said in a postgame press conference. “So I’m excited to watch from the stands next year and just see where else this program goes. And I know that this is not the limit, so hopefully they can make it to the Sweet Sixteen next year, just keep building from there.”
While uncertainty reigns supreme in the current college basketball landscape, what the Spiders do have, barring any transfers or major program shakeups, are some key returners to try to fill the shoes of players like Budnik, senior guard Katie Hill, graduate guards Faith Alston and Alyssa Jimenez and graduate forward Anna Camden.
Doogan, Ullstrom and sophomore guard Ally Sweeney, who more than established their on the court chemistry this season as the Spiders made their second consecutive trip to March Madness, will be back and will only continue to get better in an attempt to extend this successful era of UR women’s basketball.
“Spider country, Spider nation, this was awesome,” Roussell said. “And there’s more of this to come.”
Contact contributor Jimmy James at jimmy.james@richmond.edu
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