Radford University’s 2018-2019 campaign came to an end on Saturday as the No. 14 seeded Highlander women’s basketball team lost to the No. 3 seeded Maryland Terrapins, 73-51, in the first round of the 2019 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament at XFINITY Center.
Senior guard/forward Destinee Walker scored a team-high 15 points and hit 4-of-8 three-point field goals to pace Radford’s offense. Junior guard Khiana Johnson (12 points), red-shirt junior forward Lydia Rivers (11 points, 7 rebounds) and redshirt-junior forward Savannah Felgemacher (10 points) were all in double-figures. Felgemacher also added 10 rebounds for her eighth double-double of the season. Redshirt-junior center Sydney Nunley grabbed a game-high 13 boards despite playing just 18 minutes due to foul trouble.
Despite the loss, it was a historic season for the women’s basketball program. The Highlanders won a school record 26 contests, including a record 17 Big South victories. Radford (26-7) also won a program-best 18 straight contests prior to Saturday’s defeat.
The appearance in the NCAA Tournament was Radford’s first since 1994. The 22-point loss was their closest margin of defeat in four NCAA Tournament contests.”The start to the game was a big factor in how we played,” said Highlander head coach Mike McGuire. “I want to credit Maryland for having an outstanding team and having a great environment today. I think it’s great for women’s basketball. But I think their start set the tone for the game and it was something we couldn’t recover from. But I don’t want that to take away from the kind of season that we’ve had this year. It’s been a historical season in a lot of ways. Our group has been outstanding representatives of Radford University and I’m very proud of them for what they’ve done. So, today stings but we have a lot to be proud of.”
“I thought they had a terrific game plan,” McGuire added. “One of our strengths all year long is with playing in transition. I thought it was pretty clear they were trying to slow our pace from the get-go. But not only do they have length, I thought they played exceptionally hard. You could tell they had laser focus today. They were ready to get this tournament underway. I thought their ability to get us into our possessions where we were about 17, 16, 15 on the shot clock put too much shot pressure on us when we were playing the shot clock. We need to do a better job of getting into our offense a little bit quicker. We didn’t attack the one-two-two like we probably could’ve, especially when they simply reversed it down the sideline. I thought we should’ve attacked more and we didn’t. But I think the pressure was very effective from that aspect just to slow us down.”
Maryland (29-4) jumped out to a 16-2 advantage at the 4:28 mark of the opening quarter as the Highlanders missed their first four field goal attempts and committed three turnovers.
The Highlanders, however, settled down and closed the stanza on a 7-2 run to get within 18-9 at the end of the first quarter. Johnson found Walker for a trey on a fast break to ignite the spurt. Johnson then found Rivers for a bucket inside the paint. The Terrapins answered with a transition layup by Olivia Owens, but Walker scored on the interior with just four seconds left.
Walker delivered another long-range bomb to open the second stanza, trimming the deficit to 18-12 at the 9:40 mark.
The Terrapins’ Blair Watson converted a jumper on the next possession down the floor, but Johnson splashed a triple at the 7:36 mark to make it 20-15.
Walker brought the Highlanders even closer, 24-20, at the 5:13 mark as redshirt-junior point guard Jen Falconer found her on the break for her third 3-pointer of the game.
It was the closest Radford would get for the remainder of the contest as Maryland outscored the Highlanders by a 9-0 count to end the half ahead by a score of 33-20.
The Terrapins widened their lead to 21 points, 43-22, as they outscored the Highlanders by a 10-2 margin over the first 3:13 of the third quarter.
The Highlanders continued to battle as they managed to inch within 45-31 with 3:16 remaining in the third quarter. Rivers sparked a 9-2 burst with a jumper in the post and Johnson followed with a mid-range jumper. The hosts scored on a fast break layup, but Rivers and Walker converted back-to-back buckets to account for the surge.
The Terrapins gained separation by going on a 13-4 run to close out the third quarter, grabbing a 58-35 advantage heading into the final 10 minutes of play.
Maryland led by as many as 27 points at 62-35 with 8:59 remaining in the contest. Radford managed to close within 71-51 with 3:16 left after a bucket by Felgemacher.
“For me personally, this season means more to me than what people think,” said Walker. “Our freshman year we had four ACL tears. Second year, sophomore year, someone was out. Junior year, someone was out. This is my first year that everyone was actually able to play. This season was amazing. I mean I wish I had this experience more than once. But I’m grateful and thankful that I was able to have this opportunity. It’s a very humbling opportunity because people don’t always get it.”
“I just thank God for this opportunity honestly,” said Rivers. “We’ve worked for four years for this, since our freshman year. It’s always been a dream to play in the NCAA tournament and to play a top ten team in the nation. It’s just an awesome experience. Just to have the season that we had was great.”
–RU Athletics
