Men's Basketball Post-Game Notes

Jan. 18, 2006

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Richmond is off to its best 17-game start to a season since 2002-03, when the Spiders opened the year 11-6. This is also Richmond's best conference starts since opening 6-1 in 2002-03.

The Spiders have won three-straight games for the first time this season and are three games over .500 for the first time this season. Richmond has won five of the last six games.

Richmond's nation lead defense has now held its last three opponents under 55 points and has held all but three of their 17 opponents under 60 points.

After scoring over 60 points just two times in the first 12 games, Richmond has scored over 60 points in four of the last five games. The Spiders are averaging 63.0 points per game in the last five games. Richmond has not allowed any team to score more than 67 points in a game.

Richmond made a season-high 10 3-pointers, including seven in the first half. The Spiders have now made at least six 3-pointers in the last nine games with 69 in that stretch for a 7.7 average. Richmond is averaging 6.8 treys per game for the season.

The Spiders tied a season-low nine turnovers and set a season-high in free throws made with 21.

The Spiders are 8-0 this season when they score 58 points or more, 9-0 when they lead with five minutes to play and 8-1 when they lead at the half.

Richmond is 5-1 when seniors Kevin Steenberge and Jermaine Bucknor both score in double figures and 8-1 when Bucknor makes at least three 3-pointers.

The Spiders are 8-3 (.727) at home this season and 301-145 (.675) all-time in the 34-year history of the arena.

This was the second time that Richmond had let a lead of 15 or more points slip away, but then come back to win. The Spiders let a 19-point advantage disappear against Old Dominion, but then erased a four-point deficit in overtime to pull out the win. Wednesday the Richmond led by 15 points in the first half, let Saint Louis come back and take a three-point lead, but then led by as many as 12 in the closing minutes of the victory.

In the last five minutes of the past two games Richmond has made 17-of-32 free throw for 84.3 percent. Bucknor has made 11-of-12 during the final five minutes of the Dayton and Saint Louis games, while sophomore Oumar Sylla has accounted for 9-of-10.

Richmond was ranked 15th in the nation in field goal percentage defense entering the game and held Saint Louis to 36.5 percent shooting, lowering the Spiders' opponent field goal percentage to 38.1 percent. Richmond has held its last three opponents to under 37-percent shooting.

Senior Jermaine Bucknor scored a career-high 24 points, tying a career high with 11 free throws made. Bucknor is averaging 22.5 points per game over the last two contests. He scored a then-season high 21 points in the victory over Dayton on Saturday.

Bucknor has made at least three 3-pointers in nine games this season and five of the last six outings after making a trio of treys on Wednesday night. He has a team-high 41 3-pointers on the season and 125 for his career, which is 10th on Richmond's all-time list. Bucknor needs one 3-pointer to tie for ninth and two trifectas to tie for the eighth spot. He is 10th on the career list for 3-pointers with 125, two behind Gerald Jarmon (1991-94) for ninth and three behind Rodney Rice (1986-88) for eighth.

Senior Kevin Steenberge made a career-high four 3-pointers in a career-high six 3-point attempts. He also tied career-highs with five blocks and four assists in a career-high 33 minutes.

By registering five blocks for the third time in his career - and the second time this season - Steenberge now has 39 swats this year, which ties his performance from last year for seventh on the school's single-season list. He needs eight blocks to tie Johnathan Collins - who blocked 47 shots in 2002-03 - for sixth. Steenberge is fourth on the Spiders' all-time list for career blocks with 122, 11 shy of Collins for the third spot.

Bucknor has now scored in double figures in 12 games this season and 32 times in his career. Steenberge has scored in double figures seven times this season and 30 times in his career.

Junior Gaston Moliva made all three of his field goal attempts. He leads the team in field goal percentage at 58.5 percent (31-of-53).

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