University of Richmond Athletics
Men's Basketball Hosts St. Louis Wednesday Looking For Third-Straight Win
01/17/2006 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 17, 2006
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - The University of Richmond men's basketball team will go for its third-straight win and fifth victory in the last six games when the Spiders host Saint Louis on Wednesday night in the Robins Center.
Richmond (9-7, 2-1 Atlantic 10) is coming off a 58-50 win over Dayton on Saturday in the Robins Center. That was the 300th victory in the Robins Center for the Spiders, who are 300-145 (.674) all-time in the building, including 7-3 this season.
The Spiders, who are playing with just seven scholarship players, will look to move three games over .500 for the first time this season. Saint Louis (8-7, 2-1 Atlantic 10), a first-year member of the Atlantic 10, has not won or lost back-to-back games this year. Richmond will look to keep that pattern continuing as the Billikens are coming off a 50-48 last-second victory over Massachusetts on Saturday.
Richmond's nation-leading defense (53.0 ppg) appears to be back to where it was for the first 10 games of the season. The Spiders did not allow a team to score 60 points through the first 10 games, but then allowed teams to score 60 points or more in three of the next four games.
Richmond has held its last two opponents to 50 points or less, including holding both Duquesne and Dayton to 20 points in a half. The Spiders have not allowed any of their 16 opponents to score over 67 points and have held eight teams to 50 points or less.
"I'd like to think the defense is back to where it was," Richmond head coach Chris Mooney said. "We had a bad three or four game stretch there, but we've gotten back to being good. It's about being a little more aggressive, being more in tune with what the other team is trying to do. We've been guarding harder and making it difficult to get good shots off and difficult for team's to throw the ball inside."
The Spiders' offense has also been solid as of late, averaging 62.5 points per game over the last four games. Richmond scored 58 points in the win over Dayton, giving the Spiders an 8-0 record when scoring 58 points or more.
Richmond senior Jermaine Bucknor tied a career high with five 3-pointers in the win over Dayton. It was the second time this season, the fourth time in his career and the third time in his last 18 games that Bucknor has made five 3-pointers in a game. He has made at least three 3-pointers in four of the last five games and a total of eight times this season.
Saint Louis will be going for its first two-game winning streak of the season. The Billikens have not scored 65 points in the last six games, but did almost upset nationally ranked George Washington 69-64 in overtime on Jan. 11. The Billikens are led by Ian Gouyoukas, who is averaging 14.6 points per game.
The game can be followed here at RichmondSpiders.com by Gametracker and the Spider Sports Newtork's audio broadcast with Bob Black and Greg Beckwith.
