University of Richmond Athletics
Men's Basketball Plays At William & Mary Sunday At 2 P.M.
12/30/2006 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 30, 2006
/pRE>UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - The Richmond men's basketball team will look to end 2006 on a positive note when the Spiders head down Route 64 East to face William & Mary for the 193rd time on the hardwood Sunday at 2 p.m. at Kaplan Arena.The youthful Spiders have lost four-straight games, including losses to Wake Forest and Tulane in which Richmond has played well in one half and poorly in the other half..
The Spiders used a 27-5 run to take a 15-point lead late in the first half at Wake Forest on Dec. 22, but gave up 50 points to the Demon Deacons in the second half. Thursday against Tulane the Spiders fell behind by 16 points at the half and trailed by 19 early in the second half, before tightening up defensively and pulling to within four in the closing minutes of the game.
Richmond, which has six freshmen all averaging at least 13 minutes per game, will look to improve its consistency as the Atlantic 10 Conference season approaches. The Spiders have one more non-conference game on Jan. 3 at Virginia Tech, before opening A-10 play on Saturday, Jan. 6 against Fordham in the Robins Center.
This is just Richmond's fourth road trip through the first 12 games and the second road game in the state of Virginia. The Spiders will play back-to-back road games for the first time this season when they head to Blacksburg to play Virginia Tech on Jan. 3.
Freshmen make up five of Richmond's top six scorers, led by Dan Geriot, who is averaging 13.6 points per game. Geriot is the reigning Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week after scoring a career-high 21 points vs. Wake Forest.
This is the second-straight New Year's Eve that Richmond and William & Mary have played. Last year Richmond pulled out a 52-50 victory in the Robins Center to improve to 97-95 all-time against the Tribe.
William & Mary enters Sunday's game on a three-game winning streak and having won five of the last six, including Thursday's 74-67 win over Hampton. The Tribe is 6-1 in Kaplan Arena this season and a perfect 6-0 in the building against non-conference opponents.