Richmond Spiders vs. UMass Minutemen final: Richmond spoils senior night as they edged UMass 56-53

How the mighty have fallen. The Massachusetts Minutemen had their senior night and played in front of a less then full crowd. Their play was also less then full as they were stunned at home against the Richmond Spiders.

Cady Lalanne had a monster first half as he scored 10 points and grabbed five boards. Despite his effort though UMass found themselves down 27-25 and no one else on the Minutemen roster had more than four points.

UMass only led the first half for a small moment in time when Maxie Esho took off from what seemed to be the foul line (not really but still) and flushed it down with the right hand.

In the second half Richmond was able to build their lead as high as eight with 10:30 to play in the game. UMass would but it to four thanks for a 6-6 stretch from the free throw line and a layup by Donte Clark.

Despite not having a lead since early in the first half, the Minutemen had plenty of chances down the stretch.

Cady Lalanne stole the rock from Kendall Anthony after Maxie Esho hit both free throws on the previous possession. Donte Clark was fouled by "the other" Trey Davis. This was the only costly mistake that Clark would make in the second half as he clanked both shots off the rim. Esho had a very good chance for the offensive rebound but the ball bounced off his hands and into Richmond's.

Clark scored all 12 of his points in the second half on 5-7 shooting.

UMass would get even more chances as Clark redeemed himself and converted a grown-man and-one to cut it to 48-46.

But the Minutemen defense couldn't hold as ShawnDre' Jones (yes there really is an apostrophe there) made an easy layup. UMass' Trey Davis missed a dipsy-do layup on the other end and Kendall Anthony had himself a breakaway layup off an outlet pass by Jones to put the game away.

Maxie Esho recorded his 1,000th career point although I'm sure he would have rather had the win. He ended up in double figures with 10 points and eight boards. He did struggle from the floor as he hit just 3-8 of his shots.

The other senior, Cady Lalanne, did typical Cady Lalanne things with 14 points and 12 boards. He was near perfect shooting with 6-6 from the floor and 2-3 from the free throw line.

UMass has to feel like they gave this one away as they turned it over 17 times compared to just nine from the Spiders. The rebound differential was in UMass' favor as they had a 35-27 edge and grabbed three more offensive boards.

Three point shooting was a point of struggle for both as Richmond out-shot UMass with a 17.6 percentage compared to the Minutemen's 14.3 effort.

Richmond was led by Kendall Anthony who had 14 points and made big plays down the stretch when it mattered. Jones was a key guy off the bench as he was the only bench player to score with 11 points.

This was a tough game to watch for both sides as play was very sloppy. UMass had numerous shot clock violations, something that should not happen at home. Davis and Derrick Gordon struggled to get anything going as they finished with just six and four points respectively. Gordon did come away with three steals.

No Minutemen struggled as mightily was Jabarie Hinds. Hinds has had an up and down season and this might have been his lowest point of the season. He was just 1-10 from the floor for five points and had a crushing shot clock violation on a three pointer that went in, nullifying it.

UMass is now 17-13 (10-7) and is in sole possession of the 6th seed in the A-10 tournament. Their next game is against George Washington on Saturday at 3:30. GW is just one game back of UMass in the standings. Richmond takes over the 5th seed and owns the head-to-head advantage over UMass.

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