About five minutes into the University of Richmond’s basketball season-opener Wednesday night, starting forward Dusan Neskovic jogged off the court, replaced by Apostolos Roumoglou.

Spiders’ fans would be forgiven for confusing the two in early November. Each is a 6-8 transfer from a college in New England. Each is known for his 3-point touch. Each committed to UR in May.

But there appear to be deep differences, based on UR’s 101-68 win over Mount Olive.

Neskovic, whose first name is pronounced DOO-shun, scored 16 on six shots. He reached the free throw line 11 times by using ball fakes, purposeful dribbling, and other moves that reflected his Division I experience.

“For a guy who’s such a great shooter, to not just rely on 3-point shooting, that’s a positive sign,” said UR coach Chris Mooney, whose teams hosts Marist (0-1) on Saturday at 6 p.m. “He’s strong. He can really shoot, and so you have to respect his shooting so much. He has a very quick release, and then he can capitalize and take the ball to the basket.

“He really has a great sense of how to use his body, be able to finish through contact, draw contact when he drives.”

Neskovic, a Dartmouth graduate from Bosnia and Herzegovina, is 24. At Dartmouth, he played in 63 games (1,299 minutes), with 36 starts. Neskovic last season led Dartmouth in scoring and made a team-high 49 3-pointers.

He averaged 1.8 points as a sophomore and then 12.2 as a junior, before his 16-point average as a senior. He scored 23 at Duke last November.

“I take a lot of pride in work. I worked not only in that summer (prior to junior year), but for the last four or five summers in a row, and I think that prepared me really well,” Neskovic said. “I was patient with it, just stuck to the work and dedication that I have and passion that I have for this sport in my pursuit to become a professional.”

Roumoglou, who spent two seasons at Connecticut, is 21 and from Greece. At UConn, his two-season totals were 80 minutes and 29 points. Wednesday against Mount Olive, he also took six shots, missed five, and scored three.

Roumoglou, despite being a member of UConn’s back-to-back national championship teams, remains a Division I hoops neophyte in many ways because he played so infrequently with the Huskies.

“It’s been like I didn’t play for two years, like in regular games,” Roumoglou said.

But “AP,” as he’s known to teammates, has shown UR’s coaching staff that he can score. In Richmond’s two scrimmages (East Carolina, Old Dominion), he totaled 34 points.

Mount Olive played very aggressively on defense. That led to UR shooting 38 free throws but fighting to establish offensive rhythm. That seemed to affect Roumoglou.  

Another Spider who showed up in the scrimmages is Collin Tanner, a 6-6 sophomore who scored 13 (10 in the first half in 12:44) against Mount Olive. Tanner played 24 minutes last season.

“I love how he plays. I love his sense for the game, how fluid he is and athletic,” Mooney said. “I just want him to be more assertive. I know that will come with time.

“He has so many things that he does well and can help us with. We’re asking him to do a lot because we think he can.”

Marist is coming off a season with its highest win total (18-13) in 16 years. The Red Foxes were picked to finish second in this year’s MAAC preseason poll, their best projection since the 2006-07 season. Marist, located in Poughkeepsie, New York, returns 54 percent of its scoring from last season.