Women’s Basketball opens season 2-0
Junior center Danielle Hammond started in 16 games during her sophomore season. Photo by Teresa Bricker.
Daniel Purer
Contributing Writer
Women’s Basketball opened its season at home with the second-most attended game in program history at nearly 3,800 fans. Teachers, students and fans who made it to the Siegel Center during Education Day witnessed a 84-55 victory over the Longwood Lancers.
Longwood
High schools, middle schools and specialty schools came out Nov. 9 and made it one of the loudest games in Women’s Basketball history.
The Rams hosted the Lancers’ first game of the season. Longwood recently hired Rebecca Tillett as its coach. Since 2014, Tillett coached at the U.S. Naval Academy and led the Midshipmen to back-to-back 20-plus win seasons.
The Lancers scored the first points of the game, but the Rams did not let them see the lead for the rest of the contest. After an 11-1 run, the Black and Gold dominated the Lancers all the way to a 40 -16 lead. Longwood did not come within 20 points of VCU for the remainder of the game.
Sophomore guard and New Zealand native Tera Reed put up 15 points and four rebounds with sophomore forward Sydnei Archie following close behind at 13 points and five rebounds.
Redshirt-freshman Madison Hattix-Covington from Killeen, Texas secured 13 rebounds and scored six points.
Women’s Basketball coach Beth O’Boyle opened her post-game press conference giving credit to the fans and students who came to the game even if there was “too much energy” at times. O’Boyle also touted her team’s ball movement.
The Rams displayed depth in the contest, with every player on the team scoring.
“It’s one of the things going from last year to this year — experience out on the floor — and the competition we have in practice really makes a big difference,” O’Boyle said.
Reed and Hattix-Covington attributed the performance to team chemistry and communication. Reed said they are trying to learn from the previous season.
“This year, we’re all family, we all have the same goal,” Reed said. “We’ve got to tell each other what we need to work on and just get to it.”
William & Mary
Starting their season in Williamsburg at William & Mary on Nov. 6, the Rams made easy work of the Tribe with a 72-55 win. Archie tallied a career-high 15 points by shooting a perfect 7-7 in the paint.
Sophomore guards Taya Robinson and Reed both scored 11 points and combined for nine rebounds. VCU shot 49 percent from the field and 86.4 percent from the line.
The Black and Gold dominated the entire game after giving up the first basket. Rebounding and sound shooting kept VCU ahead by at least three the whole contest. Sophomore center Sofya Pashigoreva managed three offensive rebounds along with nine points.
William & Mary comes off a 16-14 2017-18 season. The Tribe also lost two seniors, Abby Rendle and Jenna Green. Current senior, Bianca Boggs led the Williamsburg side with 15 points and five steals.
The Rams head to an away game against North Carolina with a 2-0 record. After playing the ACC team Nov. 14, the Rams host another ACC team, Wake Forest, at home Nov. 18.
