RICHMOND, Va. — Clad in red and white, faces painted, clappers in hand, the Richmond students cheered their team and taunted SU last night — nearly an hour before game time. In the parking lot, chants of ‘Let’s Go Spiders’ filled the air as the fans filed in.

Along the courtside walkway, a middle-aged man with a red shirt screamed to no one in particular, ‘Big game tonight.’

And when the Orangemen took the court for pregame warmups, the fans greeted them with boos and obscenities.

Craig Forth looked up at the crowd, then turned his head and laughed to himself. Before tipoff, DeShaun Williams turned to James Thues and asked, ‘What are they chanting?’

When Thues informed him the chant was, ‘Who’s your daddy?’ Williams smiled. Later, as Williams stormed onto the court, leading the Orangemen to the layup line before the second half, he made faces at the crowd.

‘I enjoyed being here just this once,’ Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘It’s a great place to play. I just thought the crowd here was great, the fans, everyone was great. I thought we handled that well.’

Richmond, which drew 8,000 fans only once this season, sold out the 9,171-seat Robins Center last night. Its fans caught NIT fever, but the Orangemen were not ready to let the Spiders dictate the momentum and the play.

The Orangemen showed no intentions of waiting until they were down by 10 to get fired up. Standing around before tipoff, Preston Shumpert walked over to each starter, shouted instructions and gave either a quick chest bump or back pat, an example of the leadership he has inexplicably waited until this point in the season to show.

When Richmond won the opening tip, the crowd cheered loudly. When Reggie Brown took a pass in the paint from Scott Ungerer and emphatically threw down a two-handed slam midway through the first half, the crowd erupted into a frenzy. And when Brown buried a three-pointer from well beyond the top of the key 17 minutes in, the Spider faithful exploded and offered a standing ovation.

But the Orangemen never wavered. Faces stoic, they regrouped. At the other end, Kueth Duany flew through the air to tip in a rebound. When the crowd reacted in similar fashion after a second-half Spider three, Williams threw an alley-oop pass for Hakim Warrick that drew ‘Ooos’ and ‘Ahhs.”

When James Thues swished a three with about five minutes left to put Syracuse up 11, a final moan, 9,171 strong, resounded from the stands.

Give Richmond and its fans credit. The Spiders hung around all game, never letting the Orangemen relax until Thues’ three. Most of the fans stayed until the end, applauding Richmond in the final minute as the Orangemen pushed the lead to 16.

But Syracuse matched the intensity of Richmond and its fans throughout. What began as unbridled support for Richmond turned into unchecked bitterness toward the referee, whom the crowd taunted and jeered from the middle of the first half on.

Syracuse walked onto the court amid boos knowing it was the better team, as it has before some losses this season. Tonight, though, SU intended to prove it.

Peeking ahead at the rest of the bracket, there’s no reason to think the Orangemen can’t prove they are team No. 66 — the best team not to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. Sure, some good teams remain. Villanova, a team that embarrassed SU twice and kept it from the only tournament that matters, lurks on the other side of the bracket.

But things are different around the Syracuse locker room these days. No longer will they be intimidated. No longer will they passively allow another team to dictate the intensity.

Last night, they didn’t just believe they could win, they desperately wanted to prove it to the rowdy Richmond fans.

The Spider fans arrived first, but Syracuse laughed last.

Pete Iorizzo is an asst. sports editor at The Daily Orange where his columns appear regularly. E-mail him at pniorizz@syr.edu.

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Published on March 20, 2002 at 12:00 pm