Richmond reaches century mark in blowout over Fordham

The past 11 days have been a challenge for the University of Richmond. Following an impressive home victory over Temple University, the Spiders had lost their past two games, including an 18-point loss to George Washington University, a bottom team in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

The Spiders made sure there was no duplicate of that performance in Washington D.C., though, routing Fordham University, 102-58, Wednesday night at the Robins Center.

Showing an improved defensive play and better offensive flow, Richmond (12-9, 3-3 A-10) built upon an 18-point halftime lead and led by 45 with just over a minute left in the game. By that time, what remained of the 4,007 people in attendance were on their feet, giving Richmond's reserves the largest cheer of the night while hoping to see 100 points for the first time in two years.

The Rams (8-11, 1-5 A-10) came into the game losers of four of their last five games, but had shown improvement from previous years when they were one of the worst teams in the nation. But sporting a roster that had more players who were closer to high school than earning a college degree, they showed their youth with poor shot selection and missed defensive assignments.

Still, after allowing 83 and 79 points in its past two games, Richmond guard Cedrick Lindsay was pleased with the defensive effort and communication Wednesday night.

"Guys are starting to understand when to talk," he said. "As long as you say something, you're helping somebody."

The 10 steals by Richmond was one shy of its season high, and Fordham shot just 35.7 percent. Out of its 20 three-point attempts, just two were made, both coming from Alberto Estwick.

The shut-down defense allowed Richmond to get into a better offensive flow, and six Spiders reached double figures in scoring. Junior Darien Brothers led the way with 21 points, connecting on half of his 14 shot attempts.

Richmond's bench nearly outscored the entire Fordham team, adding 49 points. Normal sparkplug Kendall Anthony tied a career high with five three-pointers en route to a bench-high 17 points. Senior center Josh Duinker also added 11 points, including an emphatic two-handed dunk during the second half.

Among those gaudy statistics, what probably stands out the most is Richmond's 30 assists to six turnovers. The assists total was easily a season high, and the turnovers tied a season low.

"Against a zone, it can be tricky," Richmond coach Chris Mooney said. "You can be lulled into a sense of security, because one possession, you can throw the ball around pretty easily, and not so easily the next. I though we were very good at staying alert and not throwing the ball away almost at all."

The individual assist total was fairly evenly spread, with no player having more than five (Lindsay and Duinker).

By the end of the game, it seemed hard to believe that Fordham did have the lead early in the game. Brandon Frazier had a three-point play to give the Rams a 5-4 lead, but then the Spiders went on a 15-4 run to take control of the game.

For most of the first half, the spread was about 10 points until Richmond went on a 9-0 run to close the half. Sophomore forward Derrick Williams put an exclamation point on the first half with a dunk to give Richmond a 46-28 lead.

The first few minutes of the second half was similar to much of the first with both teams trading baskets. With a 20-point lead and about 14 minutes to go, Richmond went on another 9-2 run, thanks in large part to reserve junior Greg Robbins. During that run that once again crushed any hope of a Fordham comeback, Robbins scored eight points.

"It felt good," Mooney said of keeping the intensity in the second half. "It's something we need to get better at. Not necessarily building off an 18-point lead, but we need to get better at coming out at halftime."

Now Richmond has to prevent a similar letdown that occurred after its emotional victory against Temple. The Spiders travel to Olean, N.Y. for a 7 p.m. game against St. Bonaventure and its A-10 first-team caliber player Andrew Nicholson.

Contact staff writer Andrew Prezioso at andrew.prezioso@richmond.edu