Spiders Come Up Short in Conference Loss to Davidson

The Saturday, Jan. 25 sold out game between the University of Richmond Spiders men’s basketball team and the Davidson College Wildcats, featured two teams badly in need of a win. The down-to-the-wire clash saw the Wildcats walk away with a hard fought 72-66 victory over the Spiders. 

Despite a hot start to conference play, the Spiders came into the night on a four game losing streak and without their leading scorer and captain, senior guard Delonnie Hunt, who fractured his left foot in a loss to George Mason University. 

The Wildcats started the year 10-3 with a marquee win over Providence College, but faltered in conference play, coming into Robins Center on a three game losing streak. 

The Spiders got out to a strong start, propelled by senior guard Jason Roche, who started the game 3/3 on three pointers and had 11 points in the first eight and a half minutes of play.

However, Davidson was not far behind, as they kept within one possession of UR for the majority of the first half. 

The Spiders led going into halftime, holding onto a 31-28 lead. 

In the second half, both teams' offenses started to get going. UR jumped out to a 42-33 lead with 16:42 left, with junior center Mike Walz, who finished with a career-high 17 points, all of which came in the second half. Offensively, UR had their highest scoring night since Hunt’s injury. 

“I think it’s very important that once Delonnie [Hunt] is out we have other guys that can step up…We trust each other, we know that we will make shots, it’s just about putting the ball in the hoop,” Walz said in a postgame press conference. 

Walz, Roche and graduate forward Dusan Neskovic all scored in double digits for UR. 

Despite the burst of energy from the Spider offense, this lead would not last long. 

Davidson, who as a team came into the night making 36% of shots from three point range, the second best in the Atlantic 10, started to connect, leading the Wildcats on a 13-4 run to tie the game for the first time in over 17 minutes of game time.

UR did not go down without a fight as Neskovic buried two three-pointers. The game remained tied with just under five minutes to go when the Wildcats took over; lighting the Spiders defense up and giving Davidson a six point lead off of 48 total points from their starting forwards. 

Down the stretch, UR was able to cut the lead to 2 with under thirty seconds to play, but a costly turnover and successful free throw shooting from the Wildcats sealed the game as Davidson emerged with a 72-66 win. 

For the second game in a row, the Spiders went on a scoring run to take a lead in the second half, but were unable to finish with a win. “We just have to find a way to, when we’re in these kind of games, make plays down the stretch and we didn’t do nearly a good enough job of that tonight,” said Head Coach Chris Mooney after the game, “That’s been more than a little bit of an issue for us.” 

With the loss, UR dropped to 7-13 on the season and 2-5 in the Atlantic 10. The Spiders hope to get another win in their column this week, as they go on the road to take on George Washington University at 7 p.m. Jan. 29.

Contact sports writer Jeremy Young at jeremy.young@richmond.edu.