University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
AMERICAN
Men's Basketball Moves To 2-0 With 61-50 Victory Over American
11/17/2006 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 17, 2006
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| Highlights
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - The Richmond men's basketball team improved to 2-0 on the season with a 61-50 comeback win over American on Friday night at the Robins Center.
The Spiders, down seven points midway through the second half, closed the game with a 27-9 run to pull away from the visiting Eagles. Richmond held a 54-50 lead with under a minute to play and freshman Brian Morris canned a clutch 3-pointer with a hand in his face to put the Spiders up comfortably, 57-50 with 45 seconds left.
The victory marked the second consecutive game in which Richmond won after being down seven or more points in the second half.
"It's great for us to be able to win a couple games here to start, especially with so much youth," Richmond head coach Chris Mooney said. "It hopefully speeds up the learning process."
Spider freshman center Dan Geriot contributed a well-rounded performance for Richmond, leading the team with 18 points on 7-of-17 shooting to go along with five assists, four rebounds and two blocks. Morris finished with 15 points, including a perfect 4-for-4 on 3-pointers, and grabbed eight rebounds to come up just short of his second-straight double-double to open his career. The 6-foot-6 guard scored 11 points and had 10 rebounds in the season opener Tuesday night.
As a team, the Spiders shot 45 percent on all field goals, including 5-for-10 from the three-point range.
The 40 minutes of hard-fought basketball between the Spiders and the Eagles was a see-saw battle, with each team going on long runs of dominating play. Richmond pushed forward to go ahead 21-8 just past the 10-minute mark of the first half. Spider turnovers helped American crawl back into the contest, narrowing the lead to three points before the first half ended with Richmond still on top, 26-20.
The Eagles caught fire to start the second half, rallying to a 14-2 run putting American out in front by six points. Both teams went toe-to-toe for the next few minutes and a three-pointer from Eagle sophomore guard Garrison Carr at 10:28 built American's longest lead of the game, seven points.
Moments later, the Spiders embarked on an impressive 27-9 run of sharp-shooting to finish the game and top the Eagles. The Richmond run of more than nine minutes featured the Spiders shooting 8-for-12 on field goals and a perfect 8-for-8 on free throws.
Morris knocked down a clutch trey at the 3:41 mark with the shot clock running down, a score that doubled the Spider lead from three to six points at 51-45.
"I think we kept playing hard, we didn't get down on ourselves," Morris said. "I think we were just as composed as they were and we got baskets when we needed to."
American was led by Arvyda Eitutavicius, who was the only Eagle in double figures with 15 points.
Richmond finishes its homestand on Monday when it hosts Longwood at 7 p.m.
