The Lions (13-0, 8-0 in conference) were down, 30-18, with under a minute to go in the first half. Richter canned a three-pointer, then Cook collected a steal at midcourt against the Sea Lions (12-4, 7-1).
Cook fed Richter, who made a layup and was fouled, converting the three-point play. That put Vanguard down just six at halftime, despite never holding a first-half lead and shooting just 27%.
"That gave us energy at halftime, for sure," said senior Lacey Burns, who finished with 19 points. "Our shots weren't falling, and that affected our defense. Once we went on a run at the end of the first half, it gave us some confidence and we took it from there."
Tiari Goold hit a three-pointer to open the second half, and Burns' three-pointer from the corner with 17:45 to play gave Vanguard its first lead of the game, at 33-32.
"At the start of the game, we weren't really ready to play," said Vanguard assistant coach Lisa Faulkner, the former Lions' point guard who shared coaching duties with assistant John Barney as head coach Russ Davis was home sick. "In the second half, we played our game a little bit more. That starts defensively. When we get out and we're aggressive defensively, we get a lot of easy baskets."
Schmidt, who shot zero for seven in the first half, only had one official shot attempt in the second half. But she played hard down low, and made seven free throws — also all in the second half.
"She's not struggling," Richter said. "She was just getting a lot of contact down there. But that's the great thing about our team, that we're great at so many different positions. We don't have to have one person who does it all, because we're solid all the way through."
