Jan. 7, 2005

RICHMOND, Va. - - The Dayton women's basketball team came up just short of its first conference win of the season as it fell at Richmond, 65-57 on Friday night.

UD (6-7, 0-2 A-10) held a 33-29 lead at the half, but were outscored 36-24 in the second half by homestanding UR (11-1, 2-0 A-10) to lose for the third straight game.

The Flyers were led by 18 points on 3-for-5 shooting from three-point range from sophomore Katie Butler. The forward came off the bench to score 11 first-half points to pace UD's early surge.

Freshman guard Brittany Holterman added a career-best 11 points while pulling down a team-high tying seven rebounds also in a reserve role for Dayton .

Junior center Angela Cape was the best starter for the Flyers on the night with nine points and seven boards.

The Spiders had three players reach double figures in scoring led by Kate Flavin's 22-point, 19-rebounds. Christina Campion and Saona Chapman each added 11 points for UR .

UD started off with a hot shooting touch in the first 20 minutes. After Richmond began with a 9-3 advantage out of the gate, Dayton responded with an 8-3 run of its own to knot the game at 11-all on a pair of free throws by Terri Ramsey with 13:19 left to play in the first half.

The Flyers would then score 10 unanswered points as Jennifer Strong made a jumper followed by a trey and a layup by Ramsey and a three from Butler to put UD ahead 21-11 just under two minutes later.

However, the Spider defense would clamp down on Dayton as the Flyers were held to just one field goal over the next 5:36 while Richmond hit 4-of-6 free throw attempts as well as a pair of buckets by Campion to close the UD lead to 25-19.

After Dayton took a 29-21 lead on Cape's second basket in as many trips down the floor, Richmond would earn the next six points of the game including four by Flavin to pull within two at 29-27 with 2:01 left in the half before UD took a 33-29 edge into the break.

The Flyers shot 12-for-28 (42.9%) from the field in the first half, but could not pull away from the Spiders who hit 12-of-16 free throw attempts.

Homestanding UR closed the gap quickly after the intermission as Chapman made a three and Araceli Gil converted on one of two free throws shots in the opening minute of the second half to knot the score at 33-all with 19:21 left.

Richmond built a 39-33 advantage before cape hit the first field goal of the half, a layup at the 16:49 mark, for the Flyers to make hit a 37-33 Spider lead.

The teams would trade baskets for the next 90 seconds, but UD could get no closer than three before a 16-2 Spider run over the next six minutes would put the game out of reach for the Flyers.

The Flyers take on Saint Joseph's Sunday, at 1:00 p.m. from SJU Alumni Fieldhouse in Philadelphia.