ShawnDre' Jones saves Spiders with late-game heroics

ShawnDre’ Jones answered a question about Richmond’s hot shooting in the final minutes of Wednesday’s win with perhaps the understatement of the season.

“We got it going a little bit.”

Having made four of his five 3-pointers in the last 5:06 of the game, Jones of all people should have known just how well the Spiders had to shoot to wrestle the lead away from the Fordham Rams, especially after Richmond shot 32 percent from the field in the first half.

Though Fordham led for most of the game, neither team’s lead ever reached double digits and there were 11 lead changes in total. Jones’ timely 3-pointers combined with good-enough free throw shooting allowed the Spiders to claw their way back, seize the lead and protect it.

With two seconds left, Fordham’s Antwoine Anderson made his first free throw and intentionally missed his second, allowing the Rams to grab an offensive rebound. But a last-second shot by Mandell Thomas came up short and the Robins Center erupted with cheers as Richmond held on to win 73-71.

Despite an impressive run to end the game, Richmond’s offense was inconsistent throughout the rest of the game and the team shot particularly poorly in the opening minutes.

“I don’t think we’ve shot this poorly at home in an awful long time,” Richmond coach Chris Mooney said after the game. “I think we were a little rushed in the first half because maybe the shots came a little bit early.”

Kendall Anthony led the Spiders with 19 points, 15 coming in a first half, during which he completely took over Richmond’s offense. Jones finished with 18 points, shooting 6-12 from the field and 5-8 from 3-point range. Terry Allen scored 11 of his 17 points in the second half and grabbed six rebounds. Allen was a legitimate post threat on offense, forcing the defense to sag off of Richmond’s shooters.

Eric Paschall led the way for Fordham with 24 points on 8-14 from the field and a perfect 6-6 from the foul line, in addition to eight rebounds. Paschall combined strength, athleticism and shooting touch to take advantage of the Spiders both inside the paint and outside. In addition to making a difficult 3-pointer near the end of the game to give Fordham a chance, he had multiple 3-point plays and a few vicious dunk attempts broken up by fouls.

Mandell Thomas finished with 17 points and Chris Sengfelder had 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Rams.

The Spiders were able to turn 17 Fordham turnovers into 25 points, while only committing six turnovers that yielded just eight Fordham points. Fordham out-rebounded Richmond 42-32, but a double-digit rebounding margin is nothing new for the Spiders, who have struggled on the boards all season.

This marked Richmond’s first game without Alonzo Nelson-Ododa, who is having surgery following an injury to his face sustained in Sunday’s loss to Rhode Island. Josh Jones was the main beneficiary of Nelson-Ododa’s absence, playing 22 minutes and scoring just four points, but grabbing nine rebounds.

“Josh played great,” ShawnDre' said after the game. “He got a lot of hustle plays, a couple of easy buckets with the layups, offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds. He really stuck his nose in there tonight and I really needed that.”

Josh Jones will have to continue to perform in Nelson-Ododa’s absence as the Spiders (13-11 overall, 6-5 in the A-10 Conference) travel to take on George Mason on Saturday.

Contact reporter Walter Abrams at walter.abrams@richmond.edu