VCU starts slow, finishes strong

Quanitra Hollingworth (Chesapeake/Great Bridge High School) scored 15 of her game-high 21 points in the second half and grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds as Virginia Commonwealth defeated Towson 72-61 Sunday.

After trailing 31-30 at the half, the Rams used a 9-3 spurt to early in the second half to claim a 45-39 lead and never looked back.

“I thought heading into half time I was disappointed in the way we were rebounding,” coach Beth Cunningham said. “I think that was really a focus in the second half. That was something that got us going on both ends of the floor. We came out and got some offensive rebounds early. I thought we did a better job keeping them off of the boards.”

VCU pushed the lead to 10 with 11:43 remaining before the Tigers trimmed the advantage to five on three occasions, the third coming with less than 5 minutes to play.

LaKea Jones (Fort Washington, Md.) scored two of her 13 points on a layup on a pass from Stephanie Merlo (Bangor, Pa.) with 3:54 left, which proved to be the difference.

“We definitely came back after a hard loss to W&M. We played as a team tonight,” Hollingsworth said. “We focused on the main things: rebounding, turnovers, taking care of the ball. I definitely knew during half time I had to go out and do a little bit more. You gotta get that extra push.”

Michele Cosel (Mechanicsville/Atlee High Scool) added 12 points, and Vera Christova (St. Petersburg, Russia) contributed 10 for the Rams, who travel to Boston to take on Northeastern Thursday.

Jamell Beasely paced the Tigers with 16 points, and LaShay Rose added 12. The Tigers, who were out-rebounded 32-27, got 10 points apiece from Tierra Jackson and Kacy O’Brien.