The Spiders hosted Virginia Tech today in a not-so-secret scrimmage in the Robins Center, beating the Hokies 89-70, per source. With an exhibition against Randolph Macon College approaching on November 3rd, they got to face external talent and get a feel for what the bench minutes could look like.
Richmond was efficient, shooting 57 FG%, 7-13 3FG and putting out an 18-8 assist to turnover ratio. They also out rebounded the Hokies 34 to 24 after ranking in the bottom five in the nation a season ago.
Coming off of an ACL injury, Nick Sherod had a strong showing, grabbing 20 points, five rebounds and two assists in 21 minutes of action. Junior Grant Golden also added 20 points along with seven rebounds and three assists in just under 24 minutes. Neither them nor the rest of the starting five – Blake Francis, Nathan Cayo and Jacob Gilyard – played more than 27 minutes, indicating how much deeper this team is from a year ago when Gilyard played 37 a night.
Junior Nathan Cayo is coming off of a breakout season that saw his scoring increase by over 10 per game. Today he shot 3-5 from the field but shot an encouraging 5-6 from the free throw line. Last year, Cayo was second on Richmond in free throw attempts but only hit them at a 58% clip. Though it’s only a preseason scrimmage, this could signal progress after he made adjusting his shot a summer priority. The Spiders were 20-24 FT as a team, another good sign after shooting 66 FT% in 2018-2019.
Mooney used a full nine man rotation, bringing in Andre Gustavson (22 minutes), Jake Wojcik (22 minutes), Tyler Burton (18 minutes) and Sal Koureissi (13 minutes) off the bench. None scored in double figures, although Gustavson posted a 23 +/- differential and three assists. Wojcik didn’t take any threes, but he grabbed five rebounds and dished out three assists. Koureissi didn’t score but had six rebounds, only trailing Golden’s seven. He played 6.6 minutes per night last year and at 6’ 9” could continue to find more time if he remains a presence on the glass. Freshman Tyler Burton scored 5 points on 2-5 FG and snatching three rebounds.
