Richmond Leader

NIU Snaps Women’s Basketball Winning Streak

 Katie Hill launched a three-pointer with 0.8 of a second left to try to force overtime, but the shot bounced out. The University of Richmond fell to Northern Illinois, 67-64 at the Navy Classic Sunday afternoon and ended the Spiders three-game win streak.
 
Richmond, now 5-2 on the season, opens December on the road. The Spiders head to Williamsburg to take on William & Mary Thursday at 7 p.m. on FloSports.  
 
"Unfortunately, a tough way to end the game," head coach Aaron Roussell said. "Our kids played really well today, played hard and did a lot well enough to win the game. Other than the result, I think we can be happy about a lot of things.
 
"We made mistakes defensively and put them at the free throw line in the fourth quarter and missed on a lot of defensive coverages that they exploited and led to threes each time, including the final play of the game," Roussell continued. "It was a great learning experience for us. NIU is a very good team and a potential NCAA Tournament team."
 
The Spider defense held the Huskies to 22 points in the first half and forced eight turnovers to take a 34-22 lead into the break. Richmond had a commanding hold on NIU, building up to a 15-point lead with 4:35 minutes left in the third quarter.
 
The Huskies took advantage of the Spider offense cooling off to get within seven at the end of the third quarter, 48-41.
 
Grace Townsend hit two of her 10 free throws to start the fourth, with Siobhan Ryan nailing her second three-pointer to push the Spiders lead back to 10 in the first 45 seconds of the quarter. Hill added a jumper a little more than a minute later to give UR a 55-46 lead, but the Spiders didn't score until the media time out at 3:06.
 
Addie Budnik converted a three-point play to give UR back the lead out of the timeout, while Townsend and Emilija Krista Grava both chipped in two free throws. The Huskies scored 12 points, all from long range, in the final minutes to capture the victory.
 
Budnik paced the Spiders with 16 points, including three three-pointers, seven rebounds, two assists, a block and a steal. Hill chipped in 13 points, three rebounds, a block and a steal. Townsend, who was named to the Navy Classic All-Classic Team, tallied all 10 of her points from the free throw line. She also pulled down seven rebounds, dished out four assists and had two steals. 

Original source can be found here