UNCW HANDCUFFS RAMS IN MEN'S BASKETBALL Box score 02-21-01 WILMINGTON, N.C. - North Carolina-Wilmington used a stifling defensive effort to hold Virginia Commonwealth to its lowest point total of the season in a 65-44 win over the visiting Rams in a Colonial Athletic Association basketball contest Wednesday night at Trask Coliseum. VCU shot a season-low 30.6 percent for the game and committed 21 turnovers against the Seahawks (17-9, 10-5 CAA), who earned their sixth straight victory and put some distance between themselves and the Rams for the second seed in the upcoming CAA tournament.. UNCW scored the game's first seven points and took a 33-25 lead at intermission behind 11 first-half points by sophomore Brett Blizzard. The Rams fought hard after the break and got to within seven points (46-39) when freshman Domonic Jones (Chesterfield, Va./Manchester) scored on a layup with 10:26 remaining in the game. The Seahawks then outscored VCU 19-5 the rest of the way. The Rams, who fell to 15-12 overall and 8-6 in CAA play, were led by senior Bo Jones (Richmond, Va./Huguenot), who finished with 13 points and converted three-of-five three-point attempts. Jones also moved past Chris Brower for the VCU career lead in three-pointers made during the game and now has netted 178 treys in a Ram uniform. Blizzard led all scorers with 17 points and shot five-of-six from three-point range on the evening. Junior Ed Williams added 15 points and eight rebounds for the Seahawks in the win. VCU returns home on Saturday afternoon to face Old Dominion in an important last-season CAA matchup beginning at 4 p.m. The Rams will close out the 2000-01 regular season against crosstown rival Richmond next Tuesday at the ALLTEL Pavilion at the Stuart C. Siegel Center in a 7:30 start. RICHMOND GETS PAST RAMS IN MEN'S HOOPS 02-17-01 RICHMOND, Va. - Two Virginia Commonwealth players posted career-high numbers, but a late Richmond run in the game's final minutes enabled the Spiders to pull out a 70-66 victory over their intracity rivals in Colonial Athletic Association men's basketball Saturday night at UR's Robins Center. The two teams battled to a 30-30 tie at halftime and remained deadlocked at 58-58 with five minutes left to play until the Spiders' Scott Ungerer drained a three-point basket at the 5:01 mark to give UR the lead. The Spiders extended their advantage to 67-60 in the game's final minute and held the Rams without a field goal for nearly a five-minute stretch during the waning minutes. UR overcame a decided 43-24 advantage on the boards to the Rams by forcing 17 VCU turnovers on the night and had five players finish in double-figure points in the win. The loss overshadowed a dominating perfomance from Rams' senior L.F. Likcholitov (St. Petersburg, Russia/St. Petersburg Tech. Univ.), who scored a team-high 19 points on seven-of-nine shooting and pulled down a personal-best 16 rebounds for the game. Freshman Johnnie Story (Hampton, Va./Hampton) made good on seven-of-eight field goal attempts and finished with a career-high 16 points, while fellow rookie Domonic Jones (Chesterfield, Va./Manchester) contributed 13 points off the bench for VCU. Seniors Greg Stevenson and Kinte Smith had 15 points each for Richmond, which improved to 18-6 overall and 9-4 in CAA. VCU, who has lost consecutive conference games for only the first time this season, fell to 15-11 and 8-5 in the league. The Rams face a crucial showdown at North Carolina-Wilmington (16-9, 9-5 CAA) Wednesday night in a battle for the second seed for next month's CAA tournament. Tip-off is 7 p.m. and the game can be heard live on the Rams Broadcast Network (WLEE 990 AM, WHAP 1340 AM) as well as via the internet at www.vcu.deu/vcurams.