Women’s Basketball: Rams win second straight nail-biter

In a game that saw each team take massive leads only to give them up, the Rams came out as victors 60-59 against the St. Joseph Hawks in the Stuart C. Siegel Center Sunday.

Forward Krystal Vaughn (Baltimore, Md./Lake Clifton-Eastern) knocked down the game winning shot from just above the free throw line with 8 tenths of a second left in regulation.

The win followed a 58-55 away defeat of Radford Wednesday. Sophomore center Quanitra Hollingsworth (Chesapeake, Va./ Great Bridge) sunk a go-ahead free throw with less then a minute remaining.

“Last year we were losing these types of games”, said assistant coach Bryan Whitten, “So far this year we have won them and if we can build on this, we will go into close games knowing we can win.”

VCU, who went into halftime holding a slim lead that flip-flopped many times in the first half, began the second half in an enormous funk.

Spurned by the return of senior guard Ayahna Cornish who was yanked out of the first half due to foul trouble, St. Joe’s went on an 18-5 rampage that saw Cornish score 10 points and St. Joe’s take a commanding 50-39 lead. The Hawks’ hot hands were compounded by the Rams’ sudden inability to make shots and hold onto the ball.

“We knew with Cornish coming back in (St. Joe’s) was going to score a lot,” said Whitten, “We weren’t making shots while they were, and with their defense focusing so much on (Quanitra) we made some bad decisions.”

St. Joe’s limiting of Hollinsworth, who was a freshman all-American last season, along with the hot hand of Cornish made the game appear to be headed to a VCU loss.

(Quanitra) is going to have to understand that with her averaging a double-double and being named a freshman All-American last year, teams are going to focus their gameplans on stopping her,” Whitten said.

But up stepped Vaughn, who would go on to lead the game in scoring with 24 points. Vaughn would score 9 points in the next 8 minutes and along with some key shots by captain senior guard Michele Cosel (Mechanicsville, Va./Atlee) and junior guard Brittany Pinkney (Clinton, Md./The Patterson School), VCU pulled to within two with 1:57 left.

Yet seconds later St. Joe’s senior guard Whitney French’s two free throws took the Hawks lead to 57-53.

With only a minute remaining Vaughn would score on a three- point play off a layup and free throw to cut the lead to one. Seconds later Pinkney hit a jumper from 18 feet that appeared to be the game-winning basket, giving VCU a 58-57 lead.

But with 15 seconds left and on the other end of the court Pinkney fouled French, who knocked down another two from the charity stripe, this time making it appear that St. Joe’s would leave Richmond with a 59-58 victory.

The Rams sprinted down the court and after a beautiful pass from Cosel, Vaughn found herself with an open shot just above the free throw line. The fans in attendance collectivity held their breath, and then let out cheers of pandemonium as Vaughn struck the game-winning jumper and was then mobbed by her teammates and coaches.

“Our kids just sucked it up and didn’t quit,” said Whitten. “It was nice to see Krystal (Vaughn) and (Whitney) Pinkney make some key shots and pick up the slack. For us to have a good year we will need more of that.”

The Rams, who are now 3-0, continue their regular season schedule against the University at Albany Great Danes tomorrow night. Tip off is at 7:00 P.M. at the Siegel Center.