A 10-21 record heading into play, the third worst seed in the tournament and a dislocated finger suffered in the first half on the right hand of graduate forward Dusan Neskovic, on their face, certainly don’t make up the recipe for winning a conference postseason game.
Nonetheless, the Spiders spent 40 minutes attempting to rise above their ever-present limitations, trying to see if there was any magic left over in the floorboards of the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. where, almost three years ago to the day, they won their fourth game in four days to win the 2022 Atlantic 10 Championship and secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
Unfortunately, the University of Richmond men’s basketball team ultimately could not find any, as the Spiders lost to Davidson College 69-65 in the first round of the A-10 Tournament on March 12. Any hopes of finding that special elixir that comes with college basketball in March were dashed with the Wildcats ending UR’s postseason run on day one of the event.
With 15.1 seconds to play, the Spiders had possession, and with that, a chance to tie or take the lead, as the deficit at that juncture in the game was just two points. A missed 3-pointer by graduate guard B. Artis White, however, left UR forced to foul, giving Davidson the opportunity to win the game at the free throw line.
“We’ve had a lot of great games with Davidson over the years and today was another one,” UR Head Coach Chris Mooney said in the postgame press conference. “And unfortunately we just recently have seemed to be able to do everything better and improve, everything but win.”
The Spiders got to work early, proving that despite their less than consistent regular season, they could hang with the No. 12 seed in the Wildcats. By the 14:18 mark in the first half, UR led 11-7. For the entirety of the game, though, gameplay was tight and momentum swings were frequent.
Over the course of the contest, neither team held a lead greater than seven points and there were 11 lead changes, as well as 10 instances in which the score was tied. Each team sustained a scoring run – Davidson of nine points early in the second half and UR of eight points late in the first half – but things never surged out of reach on the scoreboard for either squad.
By halftime, the Spiders found themselves down by just two points, 34-32, still in position to try to extend their stay at the Capital One Arena.
Early in the second half, Davidson jumped out to a 41-34 lead, leaving UR with a hole to climb out of with the remaining time on the clock. The Spiders battled back and kept things close, however, as they took a 59-58 lead with under five minutes to play.
What ultimately hurt the Spiders’ chances down the stretch, though, was a four-plus-minute scoring drought matched by a 7-0 run by the Wildcats.
With 49 seconds to go, sophomore guard Collin Tanner scored a 3-pointer to cut Davidson’s lead to three points, 65-62. Then, following a Wildcat basket, a 3-pointer from White with 21 seconds to play made it a two-point deficit, but a poor-timed miss from White on the Spiders’ next possession ultimately sealed things for Davidson.
That miss was not reminiscent of the game White put together, however. He finished with 17 points and tallied five 3-pointers when all was said and done.
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“The last two or three weeks, say four to six games, [White’s] really played well,” Mooney said. “And I think we saw more and more of the kind of player that we were so excited to get. So I think the world of him and appreciate his contribution. I certainly wish we could’ve had him for longer.”
Junior center Mike Walz also had a strong outing, finishing with 16 points and 10 rebounds to make it a double-double effort. Tanner chipped in nine points and eight rebounds and Neskovic and sophomore guard Mikkel Tyne also contributed eight points apiece.
Graduate guard DeLonnie Hunt, who had been out of commission with a foot injury since early in the Spiders’ conference schedule in January, logged just under 13 minutes on the floor against Davidson.
“It’s just hard to digest that this is the last time playing on a collegiate level,” Hunt said. “It’s kind of really big for me to be able to walk off…and then also show my teammates that I’m a warrior, man. But it was just really a selfless move. I felt like I was good to go. I felt like I have some to give, whether it was on the stat sheet or not, just felt like me being out there, having a presence, even if it didn’t do anything to Davidson, it did something to our guys.”
The Spiders leave D.C. with a 10-22 record and an exit in their first game of the tournament for the second-straight year. It’s blatant that the 2024-25 squad was plagued by the lack of continuity that has been perpetuated across college basketball as a result of the transfer portal.
With new faces up and down the roster, significant injuries at crucial moments and stacked losses to types of teams that the Spiders have had success against in the past to start off the season, UR faced an uphill battle as early as after its second game – a defeat against Marist College back on Nov. 9.
Uncertainty looms over a program so rich in continuity in the form of players staying with the school, in some cases, for five and six years. As such, only time will tell what this offseason will bring and where the Spiders will stack up against an increasingly challenging A-10 conference come the 2025-26 campaign.
Contact contributor Jimmy James at jimmy.james@richmond.edu.
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