Dayton Women Can’t Overcome Early Offensive Lull in Loss to Richmond

(Photo via Dayton women’s basketball)

TJ Thompson | Sports Editor

The University of Dayton Flyers women’s basketball team (12-8, 6-3) fell to A-10 leaders the University of Richmond Spiders (17-5, 8-1) 83-72 Sunday afternoon at UD Arena. This was the Flyers first time losing this year when scoring 70-plus points, but their defense could not find an answer for preseason A-10 first-team member Maggie Doogan, who finished with 26 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists.

Doogan has been named A-10 Player of the Week twice, once when she scored a career-high 37 points against George Mason and then a team-high 26 against Davidson. Coach Tamika Williams-Jeter, who won two national titles at UConn, said that the team compares her to four-time national champion and fellow Husky Breanna Stewart by giving her the nickname “Little Stewie.”

                  The Flyers had a rough stretch in the first half, going scoreless for eight minutes. Junior Nayo Lear chalked up their poor performance to, “Offensive execution and giving up O boards.” Williams-Jeter seconds this opinion,

                  “I think in the first quarter, and in a little bit in the second quarter, we had our opportunities to score at the rim and against the number one team in our conference, you can’t do that.”

                  The Flyers turned to their defense to keep them in the game, forcing six turnovers. The offense picked up late in the second quarter when Freshman Molly O’Riordan came in for Senior Arianna Smith, who was in foul trouble, and gave the Flyers the spark they needed with seven points off the bench. Williams-Jeter showed a lot of praise for O’Riordan after the game,

                  “I mean, you know, she gets beat up by Shannon and Nani (Arianna Smith) every day, and that kid produces.”

                  Richmond was firing from downtown, shooting 17 threes in the half (5-17), the Flyers only attempted seven from beyond the arc (2-7). After scoring the first points of the game, Senior and leading scorer Ivy Wolf was held to four points in the first half and had two turnovers. When asked if there was a concerted effort to get Wolf the ball more after the break Williams-Jeter said,

                  “We wanted to get Ivy a couple more things, but I think other people just really eating off of people just denying her opened her up for some of her shots.”

                   The turning point in the half came when Freshman Olivia Leung got a steal and a layup, juicing up UD Arena. In the following possession, O’Riordan finished a layup off a diving assist from Graduate guard Nicole Stephens, cutting the Spiders’ lead to two, 26-24. A three at the buzzer from Senior Katie Hill killed UD’s momentum and moved the Spiders’ lead back to six at the half, 34-28.

                  After halftime, when the Flyers honored their women’s basketball alumni for National Girls & Women in Sports Day, the game shifted to an offensive showdown. Initially, the matchup was a sluggish defensive battle, but it quickly transformed into an offensive frenzy, with both teams shooting nearly 70% from the field in the third quarter.

The key difference was Richmond’s success from beyond the arc. The Spiders attempted 30 three-pointers throughout the game, sinking nine of them, compared to the Flyers’ five. Entering the game, Richmond was the top team in the nation, connecting on just over 40% of their attempts. Williams-Jeter made it a priority to limit their three-point shots.

                  “I think the last game, trying to keep them under like seven, right? Because they’re going to get them off because of their size. It’s not a point value, it’s just what, how they scored.”

                  The Flyers showed a lot of improvement from their first meeting with Richmond. Dayton lost 55-37 on the road in their meeting in late December. Lear talked about what the team focused on in practice to prepare for this matchup the second time around,

                  “It was a step forward from the last time we played them. We really focused on things like offensive rebounding and preventing them from getting offensive rebounds.”

                  The Dayton Flyers’ next game is Wednesday at Loyola Chicago, which Richmond just defeated by 40 points last Thursday. The Flyers performed well against the Ramblers in their first meeting at home when Dayton won 83-45, so expect a strong bounce-back game for UD.

Richmond heads back to Virginia and, after a week off, will take on Rhode Island, looking to push their winning streak to eight games in the Play 4 Kay/Breast Cancer Awareness Game. The Rams are currently 10-11 overall and 5-3 in conference play, riding a two-game winning streak.