Munford Scores 1,000th Point as URI Dominates Richmond
Saturday, March 01, 2014
The Richmond Spiders showed up the Ryan Center Saturday afternoon looking to salvage a sinking ship of an NCAA Tournament resume, but the exterminators were waiting to ambush them and celebrate a milestone achievement in the process.
URI senior guard Xavier Munford scored his 1,000th career point, URI held Richmond to 21% shooting, and the home team sent the fans home happy with a 66-43 win.
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E.C. Matthews led 4 Rams in double figures with 19 points. Munford added 15, and Gilvydas Biruta (13 points, 10 rebounds) and Hassan Martin (10 points, 13 rebounds) had double-doubles and controlled the backboard all afternoon.
Terry Allen scored 15 points off the bench for the Spiders, but it was a painfully bad performance offensively for Richmond as a whole. Kendall Anthony finished 2-20 shooting the ball and scored 8 points, a microcosm of his team’s day as a whole.
“We put it all together today both offensively and defensively,” said URI Head Coach Dan Hurley.
Hurley and Munford were all smiles after the game. Munford scored his 1,000th point on a backdoor cut and layup in the 2nd half, putting an exclamation point on his 2 year career with the Rams.
Hurley said he wished Munford could be around to see the program in better days ahead, but stressed how much his former high school player had grown as an individual and helped establish a foundation for Hurley’s URI program.
Hurley put the fan base on notice multiple times in his postgame press conference, saying Munford and the team as a whole had earned a big crowd in Wednesday night’s season finale against Fordham.
URI played very well, and Richmond played very poorly. The day belongs to Munford, and Wednesday night the senior will play one last game in the Ryan Center. That game starts at 7 p.m.
Notes
--Munford kept things short and sweet when asked about scoring his 1,000th point.
“It’s a great accomplishment,” he said. “I’m proud of myself. I feel good about it.”
--Hurley also touched on Mike Aaman in his press conference. Aaman’s playing career at URI is over after the big man endured 5 concussions in a 2-year span. Hurley said he and the team shared an emotional moment with Aaman at practice when he announced that his playing days were over.
“The focus now for Mike is his long term health,” Hurley said. “He’s one of the very best people that you could ever coach.”
--One roster note to keep an eye on: Sophomore Jordan Hare’s name was not on the roster for Saturday’s game. Hare has been on a leave of absence all season and it is questionable if he will return to the program at all. Hurley was noncommittal on Hare.
“I’m not going to comment on Jordan Hare’s situation, it’s of a personal nature, and at some point we may or may not talk about that,” Hurley said.
