March 14, 2010
• Richmond's Tournament Central
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• NCAA TICKET INFORMATION
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - Richmond -- which reached the A-10 Championship game, beat every conference team during the year and won a school-record 26 games -- is in the NCAA Tournament field for the first time since 2004. The Spiders play 10th-seed St. Mary's (26-5) on Thursday in Providence.
The game will tip off at approximately 3 p.m. ET -- 30 minutes following the 12:30 p.m. tilt between No. 2 Villanova and No. 15 Robert Morris. The winners meet in the Second Round Saturday.
Stay tuned to RichmondSpiders.com for complete ticket information.
It'll be a match-up of 26-win teams in the First Round of the NCAA South Regional as the 26-8 Spiders (seventh-seed) battle the 26-5 Gaels (10th-seed) at the Dunkin Donuts Civic Center in Providence, R.I.
As a No. 7, this marks the lowest-ever NCAA seed for Richmond, which has written its previous postseason lore as the "Giant Killer." The Spiders are the first school to win NCAA tournament games as a 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th seed.
Richmond is 6-7 in its seven previous NCAA appearances, making a trip to the Sweet 16 in 1998. Its last NCAA berth was a first-round loss to Wisconsin in 2004.
St. Mary's upset Gonzaga, 81-62, in the West Coast Conference Championship game after finishing 11-3 in WCC play (second-place). Senior center Omar Samhan leads the Gales averaging a double-double with 20.9 points and 11.0 rebounds. He is one of just two seniors on the active roster.
SMC is averaging 79.5 points/game and leads the WCC in scoring, while ranking second in scoring defense (66.0).
In the Gaels last NCAA appearances (2008), they lost as a 10th-seed to Miami in the first round. SMC is 0-5 in the NCAA Tournament.
The Spiders are one of three Atlantic 10 teams in field -- fifth-seeded Temple and sixth-seeded Xavier.
