Spiders bite the Rams to halt streak; Weber injured

Alonzo Small
Sports Editor

The VCU men’s basketball team was dealt two huge losses against the University of Richmond Saturday: seeing their 12-game  winning streak snapped and learning later senior guard Briante Weber’s collegiate career is over.

Weber was injured with three minutes and 17 seconds to go in the game when he performed a basketball move called a hop-step while driving to the lane. Weber lay immobile and looked to be in a great deal of pain as a hush fell on the Siegel Center crowd. He was taken to the back moments later by trainers and doctors and would return to the sidelines shortly thereafter. Weber confirmed via his Facebook account that the suspected knee injury was in fact a torn ACL, MCL and meniscus.

After the game, Smart spoke on Weber’s injury.

“He came down awkwardly on his knee,” Smart said. “I didn’t see how he came down but obviously he hurt his knee on a landing. He’s been looked at by our trainer and our team doctor and they’re working on getting him an MRI.”

In the battle for RVA supremacy, the Rams entered the contest having won 11 of the last 13 meetings against the Spiders. Scoreless in the games’ first three minutes, Richmond would break the scoring streak with a floater by junior forward Terry Allen and senior guard/forward Treveon Graham would respond with a baseline jumper. Four minutes and 20 seconds into the game, the score was tied 2-2. Graham would score five of VCU’s first 11 points for the game. VCU would lead the way 11-9, with 11 minutes played in the first half. Entering the break, the score was 28-22, VCU.

VCU finished the half going 12-26 from the floor (46.2-percent). Uncharacteristically, the three-point shots did not fall for the Rams as the team went 1-8 (12.5-percent) from beyond the arc. However, VCU would make all of their free-throws going three of three from the charity stripe.

However, the game was a tale of two halves.

Richmond quickly closed the gap in the opening minutes of the second half, tying the game at 28 apiece with two three-point shots. U of R would then respond in transition with a three-point shot atop of the key to give the Spiders their first lead of the game since leading 2-0 in the opening minutes. The Spiders had a 17-5 run to open the half resulting in a six-point lead, 39-33, with 12 minutes to play.

Richmond senior guard Kendall Anthony made the difference in the second half, scoring 20 second half points to keep the Spiders ahead for most of the period. A three-point shot by Anthony put the Spiders up nine with six minutes to play (48-39). Minutes later, a reverse layup in transition by Anthony gave Richmond their first double-digit lead of the game (50-39).

VCU got in foul trouble early in the half, resulting in U of R being in the bonus and having a lot of opportunities at the line down the stretch. Still, the Rams kept the game winnable as Weber made a layup with the shotclock expiring to make it a four-point game, 43-39, Richmond. He would get hurt moments later.

Without their star defensive player and down nine with three minutes and 17 seconds left to play, Graham tried to spark the rally. However, the comeback would fall short as the Rams trailed by six with less than a minute to play, eventually losing the game 64-55.

A win would have tied the longest winning streak of head coach Shaka Smart’s tenure (13) matching the efforts of the 2012-13 men’s basketball roster.

Disappointed, Smart said he felt the team defended well in the first half but did not possess the same energy and aggressiveness in the second half.

“We played with a lot of avoidance in the second half,” Smart said, adding that Richmond’s aggressiveness sent them to the foul line and the Spiders did a nice job making the free throws.

“I did think we tried to make too many home-run plays instead of trying to hit singles,” Smart said.

Smart did suggest that the team had a lot of good shots, and they just didn’t go down as evidenced by the team going 22-54 from the floor and 3-20 from the three-point line.

“Richmond I thought played a tremendous second half, and that was really the difference in the game,” Smart said.

Graham finished the game with 18 points. Weber added 11 points before leaving the game and  junior guard Melvin Johnson accounted for 10 points.

Smart was optimistic that Weber, the two-time A-10 Defensive Player of the Year, would return.

“We’ll wait and see,” Smart said. “We played without him the first game of the year and we’ve obviously played stretches of games without him but he is an integral part of what we do and we’re hopeful that he’ll be back soon but if he is out for any duration of time, we’re not going to cancel the season, we’re going to keep playing. That’s why he have a full roster of guys.”