Richmond Roadrunners Spoil Queens Home Opener

 

The Steel City Queens huddle up Saturday afternoon. Photo courtesy of the team's Facebook page.

By Thomas Leturgey

The Steel City Queens simply couldn't get enough momentum in their home opening loss to the Richmond Road Runners Saturday afternoon, 77-64.

The Roadrunners took a commanding lead, starting with the tip-off. The visiting team's Jasalyn Denkins started the scoring with a three pointer, and they never looked back. Shataya White was the first of the Queens to score, trimming the lead to 5-2. Unfortunately, the Queens would never be that close again. At the end of the first quarter, the Queens were losing 30-4. Brittany Jackson-Lowe turned in the other scoring shot in the first 10 minutes.

The Ace Pippens and Clyde Manns-led squad had a better second-half. Ariana Sanders put the team on the board, and Katelyn Fischer hit a couple of free throws and nailed a three-pointer to get the team into double-digits. The Queens were down 32-11 with about seven minutes to go in the first half. Sierra Williams hit another three-pointer right after that. Very little scoring would occur over the next 2:45 minutes. The Roadrunners extended their lead to 40-14. Fischer hit another three pointer, and then with time ticking off at the end of the first half, Shataya White crushed a 4-point shot that put a jolt into the bench. At the end of the first 20 minutes, Richmond was leading 42-21.

Ciara Patterson and Jackson-Lowe scored a couple of buckets at the beginning of the second half and trimmed the Roadrunners lead to 42-25. Jasalyn Denkins answered with two scores for the visitors, but Jackson-Lowe was fouled and recorded one of two free throws. 

Barvenia Wooten and Kawaune Rawlings' Richmond team went on a bit of a scoring spree and extended their lead to 50-27. Fischer and White answered. Jackson and Sanders traded jumpers with the visitors and the Roadrunners were winning 61-35 at the end of the third quarter.

The fourth quarter began with Richmond extending their lead to 66-35 before Fischer scored. Forward Arianna Rosemond played a key role late in the game defensively, and added four points along the way. With 3:51 left to go in the game, Jackson Lowe, Williams and Fischer trimmed the lead to 74-50.

Remarkably, that was just the beginning for the late-flourishing Steel City Queens. White hit a three-pointer and Fischer quickly added another. Richmond's Amaya Ray added three points to finish the scoring for the visitors. The Queens' Shataya White added seven points in the closing minutes to close the gap to 77-64.

The Steel City Queens are back at it at 3 p.m. Sunday at A Giving Heart Community Center in Allentown against the Greensboro Kaos, the team that handed the Queens their season-opening loss.







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