University of Richmond
Wake Forest
Men's Hoops Falls To No. 23 Wake Forest, 68-62
01/04/2003 | Men's Basketball
Jan 4, 2003
By HANK KURZ Jr.
AP Sports Writer
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - He plays for one of four unbeaten teams in Division I, but Josh Howard is going to treat No. 23 Wake Forest's 68-62 victory against Richmond on Saturday like it was a kick in the teeth.
"I'm taking it like that and I know the team will, too," Howard said after scoring 21 points to help the Demon Deacons (9-0) hang on despite their sloppy play for all but a 15-minute stretch of the second half.
"We've just got to get in practice tomorrow and concentrate and focus. Just concentrate. That's the biggest thing right there," Howard said.
The Demon Deacons opened the second half on a 20-5 run to pull away from a 26-all tie and beat the Spiders for the 11th straight time.
After building a lead as high as 15 points, and leading by 10 with 2:08 left, Wake Forest had to hold on, allowing the Spiders to get within three on two free throws by Will Holloman with 26 seconds to play.
"The first 15 minutes of the second half we played as we have most of the year," Deacons coach Skip Prosser said. "Fortunately that was enough to allow us to get out of here and back down the interstate with a win."
Howard and Justin Gray, who scored 19 points, each had six during the run that gave Wake Forest a 46-31 lead. Gray's points came on a 3-pointer and a three-point play, and Howard had a fastbreak dunk, a shot in the lane and a putback that capped the run with 13:12 remaining.
Richmond didn't get the lead under 10 until 2:36 remained, then used a half-court trapping defense to force the last few of the Demon Deacons' 20 turnovers and make the game exciting for the near-sellout crowd of 7,561.
Wake Forest helped, too, by making just three of six free throws in the last 50 seconds, but each conversion kept the Spiders two possessions away.
"We survived," Prosser said. "No one said it was going to be pretty."
Tony Dobbins, who scored 10 of his 18 points in the last five minutes, said the Spiders hurt themselves by getting out of their defensive ways.
"One of the things that has been a constant for this team, no matter how poorly we play on offense, is that our defense keeps us in games," he said. "That's something we didn't do today."
After Holloman's free throws made it 65-62, Gray had a free throw and Trent Strickland added a dunk with 6.4 seconds left.
"We just kept going and kept what focus we had," said Howard, who also held Richmond scoring leader Mike Skrocki to just three field goals.
Skrocki was 9-for-9 from the line and had 15 points, while Holloman had 13.
The first half was bizarre as Wake Forest shot 55 percent to Richmond's 36 percent, but the game was tied because the Spiders responded to an early 9-0 run with a 16-2 burst. The Demon Deacons went 6:39 between baskets and had seven turnovers in a span of eight minutes.
