RICHMOND, VA – Down by one in overtime after losing a 14-point lead, sixth-seeded Richmond fed the ball into the post for Emma Squires, who drove to the basket, and despite harm converted a layup.
After her and-one play, Richmond never surrendered the lead again defeating 11th-seeded George Washington 58-54 in overtime Thursday night at VCU's Siegel Center, advancing to the Atlantic 10 Championship quarterfinals.
“We just knew at the end of the game that we had to make a play,” Squires said of the play. “Someone had to be the one to step up and we were just struggling to score. At that point it was more about going hard to the basket and trying to make a play. I really think that got the momentum rolling for us.”
Squires led Richmond with her 18 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Teammate Kate Klimkiewicz earned her third double-double of the season which consisted of 15 points and 11 rebounds.
As a team, Richmond won the rebounding battle by a 43-36 mark.
“It sounds really cliché talking about survive and advance and as much as I don’t want to say that, I think you saw that right there,” Richmond coach Aaron Roussell said. “I really liked the way we moved the ball in the first half against both man and zone. We made some big plays on the defensive end, especially late. I am really proud of our effort and that we get to play again tomorrow.”
For GW, Mayowa Taiwo recorded her first double-double of the season tallying a career-high 19 points and 11 rebounds.
“It’s always tough when the season comes to an end but I’m not sure I could be more proud of the way that our team played in the second half,” GW coach Jennifer Rizzotti said. “We got ourselves in a hole and it would have been easy to give up. It was really fun to watch them compete, stay together and fight until the bitter end. I wish there was more I could do for them and help them feel better right now. It is taking care of them and making sure we continue to focus on the growth that we made and the way we played over the last month of the season. We need to make sure we learn from our mistakes and put ourselves in a position so that we have a better seed in the tournament next season.”
Jasmine Whitney added 13 points and recorded six steals, one off a season best. Whitney played all 45 minutes in the contest.
“We’ve preached getting stops, our offense works better if we can get stops and keep going in transition,” she said. “My defensive mindset is not different from anyone else’s on the team.”
George Washington was hurt by an 8-for-19 performance at the free-throw line.
GW opened up a four-point advantage twice in the opening five minutes, but a second-chance three-point basket from Squires placed Richmond in front.
Though the Colonials briefly edged back in front, the Spiders scored six of the next eight points, taking a four-point lead into the second quarter.
Richmond’s momentum continued with a 9-0 run in the first 2:48 of second-quarter action before GW’s Gabby Nikitinaite sank a three-point basket allowing her team to regroup.
George Washington cut its deficit to five points on two separate occasions, but Richmond converted three 3-point baskets, two of which were from Klimkiewicz, ultimately taking a 14-point advantage into halftime.
In the third period, GW opened on a 5-0 run snapped by an Aniyah Carpenter triple. Slowly though, George Washington’s defense began to factor in as for the final 6:23, Richmond made one basket.
Offensively GW was not fully able to take advantage settling for a 10-point deficit after three quarters.
Richmond shot 1-for-10 from the field in the fourth quarter as GW won the final 10 minutes of regulation by a 12-2 count.
Addie Budnik was responsible for Richmond’s lone basket.
GW’s offense slowly found points with Taiwo tying the game on a layup with 1:40 remaining in regulation.
Both teams remained deadlocked with 50 seconds left in the overtime period, when GW fed its freshman post Ali Brigham who made a layup.
Though Roussell debated calling a timeout, he decided to play on and was rewarded as Squires hit the go-ahead basket and was fouled. A sequence Roussell believed to be the play of the game.
After Klimkiewicz scored an uncontested layup in transition to go up by three points, GW was unable to answer as Richmond advanced.
“We just earned some toughness today,” said Roussell. “This team got a lot tougher today and this team is going to play with some swagger tomorrow and hopefully beyond. We’ve struggled a bit in second halves lately and I don’t think this is a team that should do that. That was a team where Jen [Rizzotti] had them really fired up and they came at us. I thought we answered a couple of times. I told the team we just won a game shooting 13 percent in the second half, which is incredible. We’re going to use it as a positive.”
Richmond will face third-seeded Saint Louis in the fourth and final Atlantic 10 Championship quarterfinal contest set to tip off Friday night at 8 p.m. on ESPN+. The Spiders will hope to avenge a Feb 14, 62-57 road setback against the Billikens, a result which came without Roussell.
“Every coach talks about one game at a time, right,” Roussell asked. “I’d be lying if I said we hadn’t looked at Saint Louis and practiced a bit against Saint Louis. There is your coach honesty for today. It was hard not being there in person the last time and seeing some things, but I thought our kids played hard against them the last time. They’re a tough team but we’ve been excited about that matchup. It’s two good teams.”