Rapid Recap: Richmond 82 - Fordham 70

Final Score: Richmond 82 - Fordham 70

What Happened: Richmond led Fordham for the majority of the game, but it took until the last five minutes for the Spiders to close out the Rams and extend their winning streak to three games. Kendall Anthony struggled early on, but he rebounded and finished with a team-high 24 points. ShawnDre Jones added 14 points and Deion Taylor played one of his best games of the season, finishing with 13 points. Freshman Jon Severe, the Atlantic 10's leading scorer, led all players with 28 points, and Branden Frazier added 24 for the Rams. No other Ram scored more than four points. Richmond forced Fordham into 14 turnovers, which turned into 23 Richmond points. Jones scored a team-high 10 points in the first half, as the Spiders took a 38-31 lead into the break. Richmond scored 17 of its 38 first-half points off of the Rams' eight turnovers. Severe and Frazier combined for 19 of the Rams' first half points. Fordham's 18-17 lead midway through the half would turn out to be its last lead of the game. Richmond maintained its lead early in the second half, but Severe, who scored 10 points in the first eight minutes of the second half, kept the Rams in striking distance. Frazier hit his third 3-pointer with under 12 minutes left, which cut the deficit to three points for the first time of the half. The Rams seemed to have slowly gained momentum, but Anthony opened the Spiders' lead to 59-51, as he scored five consecutive points in under a minute. A Wayne Sparrow 3-pointer followed by an Anthony breakaway layup gave Richmond a 66-55 lead, its first double-digit lead of the game, with less than four minutes to play and served as a a dagger of sorts given the Rams did not threaten the Spiders for the remainder of the game. Consecutive dunks by Terry Allen and Trey Davis with under a minute to put the exclamation point on Richmond's victory.

Spider Positives: ShawnDre Jones continues to impress since he received more playing time because of Cedrick Lindsay's season-ending injury. Yes, Jones makes some freshman mistakes here and there, but overall, he plays with confidence and teams have to respect his shooting ability. Trey Davis' stat line rarely seems to adaqueetly represent his impact on the game. Tonight, Davis finished with 11 points and seven rebounds -- a very solid line that still under represents his importance to Richmond. Davis is one of Richmond's best defenders and he is constantly fighting for and winning lose balls and rebounds. Davis, as he almost always does, played a sound game tonight and was instrumental to Richmond's victory.

Spider Negatives: The Spiders' lack of depth is quite concerning, and what makes it so concerning is Mooney does not have many options to fix this obvious problem. After losing Lindsay and Derrick Williams, coach Mooney has six players he can count on. Tonight none of the six played poorly, as the Spiders beat a team that gave Richmond fits when it had its two seniors, but what happens when a couple guys have off nights? Wayne Sparrow hit a clutch 3-pointer tonight, but he has not been reliable this season. Freshman Josh Jones' minutes have increased in the last few games, but I do not think he is ready to play lots of minutes at this level. Richmond is currently 3-0 since losing Lindsay and Williams, and that's a great sign for Spider fans, but going forward, Richmond's lack of depth is concerning.

Up Next: Richmond plays George Washington, which is third in the A-10, on Tuesday in Richmond's second of three consecutive home games.

Contact staff writer Jack Nicholson at jack.nicholson@richmond.edu

Follow him on twitter at @Jack_Nicholson