University of Richmond Athletics
Spiders Travel South To Battle Demon Deacons
12/05/2003 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 5, 2003
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UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - Second-year head coach Jerry Wainwright returns to Wake Forest where he served as an assistant coach from 1984-94 when his Spiders take on the 16th-ranked Demon Deacons at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
The 42nd all-time meeting between these two programs will be televised on Fox Sports South and the Sunshine Network as part of the Regional Sports Network. This will be the Spiders' first of 12 regular-season games to be broadcast live.
Wake Forest (4-0) holds a 32-9 advantage in the all-time series, having won the last 11 against Richmond (4-2). The Spiders confidence is high after delivering an 18-point defeat to cross-town rival VCU (70-52) on Wednesday night.
STORYLINES
* The last four games in this series have been decided by an average of 8.3 points, but Wake has won the last 11 meetings. The last time Richmond defeated the Demon Deacons was a 51-49 decision on Jan. 15, 1990 in the Robins Center.
* The last time the Spiders won in Winston-Salem was Nov. 28, 1988, a 74-61 victory. Wake has won the last six home games in the series.
* Richmond's field goal percentage bounced above 50 percent (52.3) for the first time this season against VCU and the first time since the Spiders beat La Salle, 72-56, on March 8, 2003 (23-of-46/50.0 percent).
* Senior Tony Dobbins has recorded a double-double in back-to-back games. His 12-point, 10-rebound performance against VCU marked his seventh career double-double.
* Sophomore Kevin Steenberge scored a career-high 12 points on a career-high five baskets against VCU. His dunk to open the second half came from a Daon Merritt feed, one of a team-high four helpers from the frosh. Merritt also set a career high with 14 points on 4-of-7 shooting, 6-of-7 from the charity stripe.
* Second-year Spider head coach Jerry Wainwright was an assistant at Wake from 1984-94. In an earlier reunion, Wainwright faced Dave Odom (now coach at South Carolina) who was Wake's head coach for Jerry's last five seasons in Winston-Salem..
GAME NOTES
Going For 200 Straight ... The Spiders have made at least one three-pointer in 199 consecutive contests ... The last time Richmond failed to make one three pointer came on January 27, 1997 -- a 75-65 win against visiting James Madison.
24 Going On 35 ... Senior Mike Skrocki needs 24 points to become the 35th Spider player to reach the 1,000-point plateau ... After 100 career games, Skrocki has notched 976 points (9.8 per game) ... He has scored in double figures all six games this season and leads the team with a 15.8 scoring average.
Against The ACC ... Richmond is 74-139 (.347) all-time against current members of the ACC ... The Spiders and Virginia Cavaliers have met the most (118) with UVA holding a 49-36 advantage in the series ... Wake Forest and Richmond have met 41 times (9-32) -- the second most ... The Spiders vs. the other ACC schools: Clemson (3-2), Duke (2-8), Florida State (3-1), Georgia Tech (4-5), Maryland (15-25), North Carolina (2-14) and N.C. State (0-3).
Long-Range Bomber ... Senior Mike Skrocki leads the team and is seventh in the Atlantic 10 with a 42.9 percentage (15-of-25) from behind the arc so far this season ... His 157 career triples ranks fourth all-time ... Skrocki is five shy of Ken Atkinson who is third.
Double-Double Last Three ... A Spider has recorded a double-double in each of the last three contests ... Senior Tony Dobbins has recorded one in each of the last two games -- 16p, 12r at UAB (Nov. 29); 12p, 10r vs. VCU (Dec. 3) ... Against South Carolina (Nov. 25), Jamaal Scott scored 11 points and grabbed 11 boards to notch his first as a Spider.
Anything Else I Can Do? ... Senior Tony Dobbins has once again proven indispensable on the court ... While averaging 34.3 minutes per game, Dobbins leads the team in rebounding (8.8 per game), steals (2.7 per game) and free-throw percentage (83.3) ... He ranks second with 10.3 points per game and 3.8 assists per game.
This One Felt Good ... After losing to its cross-town rival each of the past two seasons, Richmond overpowered VCU in a 70-52 win on Dec. 3 ... The Spiders' 18-point margin equaled their largest in the all-time series, also reached in 2001 ... Richmond's starters supplied 90 percent of the offense, including career highs from Kevin Steenberge (12) ... The Spiders succeeded on season-highs from the field (52.3), three-point range (47.1) and free throw line (84.2).