Taylor and Reed Lead Women's Hoops to 68-55 Win at Richmond

XU Improves to 20-4 on the Year

Tudy Reed and the Musketeers are back in action on Wednesday night.
 
Tudy Reed and the Musketeers are back in action on Wednesday night.
  

Feb. 7, 2009

Box Score

RICHMOND, Va. – Senior guard Jerri Taylor scored 13 points and hit a couple of big 3-pointers down the stretch to lead the No. 23/21 Xavier University women’s basketball team past Richmond, 68-55, on Saturday afternoon at the Robins Center in Richmond, Va.  With the win, XU’s 11th straight, the Musketeers improve to 20-4 on the year and 8-0 in Atlantic 10 play.  Richmond slips to 17-6 overall, 5-4 in the loop.

XU has now won 20 games in each of the last five seasons and has tallied 20 regular-season wins in four consecutive years.  The Musketeers have registered 20 wins in six of Kevin McGuff’s seven seasons and the program has posted at least 20 wins in nine of the last 11 years. 

XU’s 8-0 start in league play marks its best start ever in the A-10. 

Senior forward Tudy Reed also scored 13 and sophomore guard Special Jennings added 11 points and three assists.  Both Taylor and Reed were 5-of-12 from the field.  Sophomore center Ta’Shia Phillips pulled down 12 rebounds and was one point shy of a double-double.  She was limited to only 28 minutes due to foul trouble.  Junior forward April Phillips enjoyed another solid all-around performance with seven points, eight rebounds and three steals. 


 

 

The Spiders trailed by nine and XU led by as many as 14 in the early stages of the second half but Richmond used an 8-0 run to whittle the lead down to two points, 49-47, with 7:20 to go.  Johanna McKnight almost singlehandedly got Richmond back in the game, scoring 11-straight points for the Spiders. 

However, freshman Tyeasha Moss buried a big 3-pointer on the ensuing possession and Special Jennings followed that up with a theft and a fast break layup to give XU a seven-point cushion.  The dagger came after an XU stop when Taylor nailed a 3-pointer on the wing as the Xavier lead grew to ten points, 57-47, with 4:50 to go.   

XU won the battle of the boards by a 36-to-28 count and held the Spiders to 38.0 percent (19-of-50) shooting on Saturday.

The Spiders scored the first hoop of the game but the Musketeers jumped out to an 8-2 lead with, four points each from Reed and Ta’Shia Phillips, by the 16:20 mark.  Xavier would use stingy defense to extend the lead to as many as 11 points as the team seized a 25-14 lead with 2:10 remaining in the first half after holding UR without a field goal for 6:10. 

Richmond would mount a rally with five-straight points but Reed converted on an old-fashioned 3-point play with 30-seconds remaining and the Musketeers took a 28-19 edge into the locker room.  XU held the Spiders to just 30.4 percent shooting and forced Richmond to commit 12 turnovers.

The Musketeers are back in action on Wednesday, February 11 when the team welcomes George Washington to Cintas Center.  Game time is set for 7 p.m.

 

 
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