On Sunday, we travel to Richmond for a contest against a solid Virginia Commonwealth University team that is 9-8 and already has 4 A10 victories under their belt.

The Rams are a balanced squad with good overall height and a roster that features players at 6’4”, 6’3”, and four at 6’2”. The bulk of their scoring comes from the backcourt, led by Taya Robinson, a 5’10” graduate student who averages 15.7 ppg on 39.1% shooting, and 5’5” Sophomore Sarah Te-Biasu who comes in at 12.5 ppg and is shooting 36.7% from 3-point range. Currently, their “height” seems to be coming off the bench, with several players contributing between 14-22 minutes a game. As a team, the Rams shoot 39.1% from the field and 32.3% from distance, while scoring 62.2 ppg and giving up 59.3 ppg.

At this point of the season, our opponents are less important than how we show up for the game and perform. Engel became the 10th (?) Colonial to lead the team in scoring in a game this season, highlighting an inconsistency we’ve had all year offensively. This really hurts us in close games because one thing most A10 teams have in common is a “go-to” player who can go one-on-one down the stretch and create a clean shot. This was very evident with Asianae Johnson in the St. Bonaventure game. She dominated the ball and closed us out. When it was our turn, there was no clear player to turn to. Lok and Laureano were on the bench. Engel and Brown had nice games but need to play within the offensive flow and let the game come to them. Our best bet is Frames, who has by far the best handle on the team but is disadvantaged because of her height and shooting woes of late (29.7% overall and 0-6 from 3-point range against the Bonnies). A talent upgrade is definitely needed (thinking next year and beyond), but for the rest of this season, winning games will depend on whether we can build enough of a comfortable early margin to get us through critical situations at the end of a game. Engel definitely deserves more minutes, but we can’t put pressure on her to be “the” scorer, because that definitely has backfired with Lok and Laureano.

We played solid defense and respectable offense against the Bonnies and outperformed them in most statistical categories. That seems to be our formula for now. Although our rotations sometimes raise eyebrows, we have to remember that it takes time for a new offensive system to become instinctive for players. Until then...