CONWAY – Sophomore forward Aja Blount scored 19 points to lead Coastal Carolina, but Richmond made 10 three-point field goals in the second half to pull away for a 79-67 win over the Chanticleers in a Friday afternoon matchup in the Coastal Carolina Thanksgiving Classic at the HTC Center. The loss was the first of the season for Coastal, which is now 4-1 while the Spiders improved to 5-2.
 
Blount got scoring help from senior guard DJ Williams, who had 18 points to go along with team-highs of seven rebounds and six assists. Senior guard Torrie Cash reached the 1,000-point mark for her college career with 14 points and senior center Naheria Hamilton added 11 points and six rebounds.
 
Richmond got career-high and game-high from Emma Squires, who had 22 points, including 15 in the second half. Squires was one of four players in double figures for the Spiders, which rallied from a 10-point deficit late in the first half. UR guard Kate Klimkiewicz had 10 of her 16 points in the first half, but the Spiders were just 3-of-17 from beyond the arc.
 
Richmond hit 10-of-14 treys in the second half and built a 15-point lead at 74-59 with 3:25 to play.
 
Senior guard Caitlin Roche hit a three-pointer to spot Coastal to its largest lead at 30-20 with five minutes remaining in the first half, where Blount and Williams each had eight points to pace Coastal to a 32-27 edge at the break.
 
That changed in the second half when Richmond found the mark from long range and moved in front to stay on consecutive three-pointers, making the score 44-40 late in the third period. In contrast, Coastal, which came into the game hitting 33 percent of its long-range shots, was just 2-of-10 for the game and didn't make a trey in the second half. The Chanticleers also went without points from their leading scorer, junior guard Zacharyia Esmon, who came into the contest averaging 15 points a game.
 
The Chanticleers had the edge in rebounding, 35-30, and outscored the Spiders, 32-22, in the paint, but Richmond countered by having five different players hit three-pointers.
 
Coastal will now host George Mason at 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 1, in its second game of the Thanksgiving Classic, and then return to the HTC Center to face UNC Pembroke at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5.
 
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