University of Richmond
HAMPTON
Men's Basketball Holds Off Hampton In Season Opener
11/19/2005 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 18, 2005
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UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - Senior Jermaine Bucknor notched his third career double-double, scoring 14 points and grabbing 11 rebounds, as the University of Richmond men's basketball team won its season opener 44-40 over Hampton on Friday night in the Robins Center.
The game marked the Richmond debut of head coach Chris Mooney, the 13th men's basketball coach in school history. Mooney, who comes to Richmond after leading Air Force to an 18-12 record last season, became the seventh Spider coach to win his first game at the helm.
"It is a win, but it was a struggle the whole way," Mooney said. "It was difficult for us to find that rhythm that I hope defines Richmond basketball. It was a very difficult opponent for us to play tonight. We are fortunate to have won the game."
The new-look Spiders used the Princeton offense which Mooney learned as a star player under Hall-of-Fame coach Pete Carril. While Mooney wasn't satisfied with his team's offensive showing, the Spiders did put together a seven-minute stretch in the second half that should be a sign of things to come. Richmond went on a 16-3 run with Bucknor connecting on three shots from behind the arc and junior guard Peter Thomas executing a back-door reverse lay-up that will become a frequent sight as the team becomes more comfortable with the offense.
Of course as the team adjusts to the new offense, and deals with an inexperienced backcourt, there will be struggles. Those struggles happened Friday, including in the final seven minutes of the game, allowing Hampton to cut an 11-point deficit to one.
"In this offense you get so many open looks and it is hard to turn them down because you get so many early," Bucknor said. "In last season's offense we had to take the first open look we had. Now it is hard to turn them down early in the shot clock. What we are trying to work on now and in practice is trying to get through the offense and not taking the first shot everytime. We maybe get through it for a second shot or maybe a back cut. It is working out."
Chris Mooney made his Richmond debut in Friday's win over Hampton.  |
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"For being around and knowing what our situation is I thought our backcourt was fair," Mooney said. "The problem came when we crossed halfcourt. It happened when we tried getting the ball to a guard. It was nowhere near good enough. Hampton can really put pressure on you. That team is going to win a lot of games."
Bucknor hit 3-of-5 of his three-point attempts and made 5-of-6 free throws to finish with a game-high 14 points in a career-high 39 minutes. He was a force on the defensive boards, pulling down 11 rebounds, and also had two steals.
"I think without Jermaine Bucknor we don't win the game," Mooney said. "Jermaine was terrific. Our defense was good and I though we made some tough plays down the stretch that enabled us to win the game."
"It was the first game of the season and it is always a challenge to run your system against different guys, when you are so used to running against your own team," Bucknor said. "We got some open looks in the first part of the game, but fortunately the guys kept coming back to me when I had open looks in the second half and I was able to knock them down. Once you feel good, you just feel good."
Thomas, a former walk-on who is now a scholarship starter, was expected to thrive in the Princeton offense and he had an impressive game Friday. Thomas shouldered a lot of the ball-handling duties against the Hampton full-court pressure and finished with a career-high seven points to go with two assists and just one turnover in a career-high 36 minutes.
Thomas made the defensive play of the game in the closing seconds, when he drew a charge on Hampton's Rashad West.
"They had been running a play to try to get Granger the shot. They would hand off to him going over the top to get shots," Thomas said. "They faked the hand off and I saw it early and I was able to step baseline and was lucky enough to be there and get the charge."
Richmond seemed poised for a double-digit victory after going on a 16-3 run to take an 11-point lead with 6:53 remaining. But the Spiders lost their offensive flow and only scored four points the rest of the way as Hampton went on a 12-2 run to pull within one point with 1:19 left.
Jarhon Giddings, who finished with nine points and seven rebounds in his Richmond debut, hit one of two free throws with 14.5 seconds left to put the Spiders up 42-40. Then Thomas came up with the huge charge on West and Bucknor sank two free throws to ice the win.
