University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
No. 23 VCU
Men's Basketball Stopped In A-10 Quarterfinals
03/15/2014 | Men's Basketball
BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Twenty-four hours after a win over Duquesne, the short-handed Richmond men's basketball team lost to the No. 23 ranked VCU Rams 71-53 in the Atlantic 10 Quarterfinals Friday.
The Rams (25-7) are the No. 2 seed, which earned them a bye into the quarterfinals.
Richmond has been using a seven-man rotation since Feb. 1, when it lost both seniors for the remainder of the season. Playing on back-to-back days proved too much for the depleted Spiders.
VCU's Briante Weber, the Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Year, made 8-of-10 shots to scored 18 points as VCU build a 16-point halftime lead on the way to advancing to the Atlantic 10 Semifinals.
Richmond freshman ShawnDre' Jones scored 18 points, making 5-10 field goals and 3-of-6 three-pointers. It was the sixth double-figure scoring game in the last 11 contests for the freshman, who saw his minutes increase by 15 minutes per game after the loss of leading scorer Cedrick Lindsay.
Spider sophomore Terry Allen scored 16 points, making 5-of-8 field goals for his third-straight double-figure scoring game and eighth in his last 11.
Sophomore Alonzo Nelson-Ododa scored seven points and grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds. Senior Kendall Anthony scored seven points.
The Spiders finish the year at 19-14 overall. Richmond does not lose any seniors from the current roster and adds transfer T.J. Cline, who was a MAAC All-Rookie selection last season at Naigara. Richmond also welcomes three freshman, Chandler Diekvoss (West DePere, Wis.), Khwan Fore (Huntsville, Ala.) and Paul Friendshuh (New Prague, Minn.)
“I think it was important for us to win last night's game,” Richmond head coach Chris Mooney said. “Today's game was disappointing, I really wish we would have played better. But I think we can take from it that we need to get better. We have the opportunity to get better, there is time. It is going to take a lot of effort, but we have the opportunity to get better.”
