Men’s basketball drops third-straight game to William & Mary

If there’s one thing the University of Richmond basketball team needed heading into play, it was a victory. 

It had been 21 days since the Spiders had graced the win column as they prepared to take on the College of William & Mary in a Dec. 18 matchup away at Kaplan Arena. 

Unfortunately for UR, that long-awaited victory will have to wait, as the Spiders lost their third-straight game, falling 93-87 to the Tribe in one of their final outings against a non-conference opponent of the 2024-25 season. 

In the first half, the Spiders found themselves up by nine points with just over four minutes to play following a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Mikkel Tyne. It appeared at this point that UR was in control of the game after starting things off playing catch-up. 

The Tribe, however, squelched the Spiders’ momentum. Almost three minutes of gameplay later, an 11-0 run sparked by a layup and three-straight 3-pointers gave William & Mary a two-point lead. 

The Spiders were able to retake the lead thanks to free throws from graduate guard DeLonnie Hunt and a 3-pointer from junior forward Apostolos Roumoglou with four seconds to go in the first half. At halftime, UR led William & Mary 41-38. 

The second half was where things slipped away for the Spiders. The Tribe quickly got to work offensively, and suddenly what was a three-point UR lead heading into the final 20 minutes of play turned into a 10-point deficit for the Spiders to overcome with 11:43 to go. 

A Tyne layup gave UR the lead back with 5:20 remaining, but William & Mary would eventually pull ahead down the stretch en route to its win over the Spiders. When all was said and done, UR could not replicate on the basketball court what it did on the football field against the Tribe last month to win the Capital Cup. 

“[The Tribe are] just relentless as they come down and shot the ball well tonight,” UR Head Coach Chris Mooney said in a postgame interview with the Spider Sports Network. “Part of it is we have to make teams not shoot well.” 

What the Spiders have lacked this season is consistency. When struggles have arisen in past seasons, UR had things its program could rely on. 

During the 2021-2022 season, it was the familiarity between veterans like Jacob Gilyard, Grant Golden, Nathan Cayo, and Nick Sherod. The year after that, it was senior forward Tyler Burton who the Spiders could always count on. Last season, transfer Jordan King proved to be the team’s backbone with help from players like Neal Quinn, Zae Bigelow, and Dji Bailey. 

This season, the Spiders have had solid distribution when it has come to offense, but unlike in seasons past, game-to-game there hasn’t been that thing the team can lean on consistently in difficult stretches. 

Hunt has scored in double figures in all but one contest this season, and has tallied 26 or more points on four occasions. Consistency from other players continues to be the Spiders’ Achilles’ heel, however. It’s been a theme throughout their now six losses. 

Against the Tribe, the Spiders appeared to have found some of that well-rounded scoring. Aside from Hunt’s 17 points, graduate forward Dusan Neskovic had an especially solid outing from the field, finishing with 20 points. 

Junior forwards Jonathan Beagle and Roumoglou each had strong performances as well, chipping in 17 and 15 points, respectively. Even junior center Mike Walz contributed 11 points to the Spiders’ total. 

William & Mary’s late-game efforts just ultimately proved too much for UR, however. 

“We need to build off of these things and just keep grinding away and hopefully get better and better,” Mooney said. 

This loss drops the Spiders three games below .500 on the season. With two non-conference games remaining in its schedule against the Virginia Military Institute and Florida Gulf Coast University, UR will aim to pick up whatever wins they can before Atlantic 10 Conference play begins. 

“We have conference play coming up and we have two games to prepare for that,” Neskovic said in a postgame interview with the Spider Sports Network. “I think it’s gonna be key to come in tomorrow strong and prepare for VMI.” 

The Spiders will face the Cadets at the Robins Center at 6 p.m. on Dec. 21.  

Contact sports editor Jimmy James at jimmy.james@richmond.edu.