University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
Old Dominion
Old Dominion Sends Spiders To First Loss Of Season
11/25/2006 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 25, 2006
NORFOLK, Va. - Richmond's seven freshmen were off to an exciting 3-0 start to their careers, but the youngsters dealt with their first collegiate loss on Saturday, a 69-52 setback to Old Dominion in the Spiders' first road trip of the year.
For most of the game Richmond kept the game closer than the final score would indicate against a more physical Old Dominion team that had defeated No. 8 ranked Georgetown on Sunday. The Spiders trailed by seven at the half, but fell behind by 12 in the opening minutes of the second half. An 11-1 run over 2:21 closed the gap to two points (39-37) with 10 minutes remaining, but Old Dominion would go on a 16-2 run to pull away for good.
The loss was the first in four games to open the season for the Spiders (3-1). Playing on the road for the first time this season, Richmond shot 39.6 percent from the field, but did make eight 3-pointers. Old Dominion shot 50-percent from the field (24-of-48) and 44.4 percent from 3-point land (8-of-18).
"I thought we competed throughout the game," Richmond head coach Chris Mooney said. "On the road you need to take advantage of every mistake because it can go from a six-point lead to a 17-point lead pretty quickly."
This was the first collegiate road test for the Spiders' freshmen, six of which have played in every game and four of which start.
"They played like freshmen today," Mooney said. "It was on the road and it's hard, I can't overstate how hard it is on the road. This was their first experience with that and we didn't play very well."
Richmond freshman center Dan Geriot, the team's leading scorer, was in foul trouble throughout and was held to seven points - his first time not in double figures - in 17 minutes of action before fouling out with eight minutes to play.
Red-shirt freshman Ryan Butler led the Spiders with 15 points, his third time in double-figures in four games this season. Butler made a career-high 5-of-8 shots from behind the 3-point arc and is 12-of-21 (.571) from 3 this season.
Senior David Brewster scored eight points
Richmond was out-rebounded 38-20 on the glass, giving up 14 offensive rebounds. Old Dominion made 19 trips to the foul line and made 13 free throws, while the Spiders were 6-of-10.
"Rebounding will bother us all season because we're such a small team," Mooney said. "If we get out-rebounded by nine then we have a chance, but we cannot get out-rebounded by 18 and expect to win the game."
The Spiders closed a 12-point deficit down to two (39-37) after a 3-pointer by Butler with 14:20 to play. The Monarchs pushed the lead back to eight, and after a lay-up by Thomas cut it to six, Old Dominion went on a 10-0 run to open up a 16-point lead.
A lay-up by freshman Brian Morris, another 3-pointer by Butler and two free throws by Giddings trimmed the lead to nine at 55-46 with 6:30 to play, but the Monarchs kept possession of the ball for most of the last six minutes due to several offensive rebounds.
Richmond returns home to the Robins Center to host Radford on Wednesday night at 7 p.m.
