Women snap Spiders streak
Pressure?
You mean like being 17 years old, the youngest player in all of women’s college hoops, having your face on the front of the sports section of the biggest paper in the state (twice) and having to hit the court that night against your school’s crosstown rival and show everybody what all the fuss is about?
Or do you mean like being a sophomore guard and getting the first start since you hit campus after coming off the bench and giving Loyola, Toledo and Howard buckets … upon buckets … upon buckets?
Quanitra Hollingsworth is that 17-year-old and she dropped 22 points on the Spiders.
Pressure?
You mean like being 17 years old, the youngest player in all of women’s college hoops, having your face on the front of the sports section of the biggest paper in the state (twice) and having to hit the court that night against your school’s crosstown rival and show everybody what all the fuss is about?
Or do you mean like being a sophomore guard and getting the first start since you hit campus after coming off the bench and giving Loyola, Toledo and Howard buckets … upon buckets … upon buckets?
Quanitra Hollingsworth is that 17-year-old and she dropped 22 points on the Spiders.
Krystal Vaughn is that sophomore and she went for 23 points and eight rebounds.
It’s not about the pressure. It’s about the response.
And for the third straight time in this young season, Hollingsworth, Vaughn and VCU’s women’s basketball team by hitting the boards, making clutch baskets and leaving court with a “W”, this time a 76-74 double-overtime win over a Richmond team that had won the teams’ last six meetings.
Hollingsworth sealed it.
The pressure of a possible game winning free throw with 1.2 seconds to go in the first overtime was forgotten. She missed it and moved on.
Almost five minutes later she grabbed an offensive rebound, her 11th board of the night, and hit the stickback that gave the Rams a 1-point lead with less than 30 seconds left in regulation.
Her rebound at the other end of the court just seconds later -elbow in the face be damned-left her squeezing the life out of the ball and the Spiders’ hopes of any last second surprises.
Named CAA Rookie of the Week Nov. 28, Hollingsworth put an end to the steady downpour of buckets that Vaughn continued to drop. The 6-foot-1 sophomore from Baltimore, Md., made the most of her first start, going for 41 minutes, hitting 10 of her 21 shots and grabbing three of her five rebounds on the offensive glass.
The Rams needed every bit of it, plus 10 points from Stephanie Merlo and a 7-point, 5-assist performance from senior Michele Cosel to fend off the Spiders, who got a double-double (25 points and 10 rebounds) from Mirna Mazic.
VCU is now unbeaten through four games. That means four down, 23 to go for the youngest player in the country and the sophomore guard with plenty of starts ahead of her.
No pressure.