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.