University of Richmond
MARIST
Marist Overtakes Richmond 80-73 In OT
12/02/2006 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 2, 2006
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| Highlights
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - The Richmond men's basketball team led by as many as 14 points in the second half, but a senior-laden Marist squad came fighting back for an 80-73 overtime victory Saturday night in the Robins Center.
Freshman center Dan Geriot scored a team-high 18 points and red-shirt freshman Ryan Butler tied a career high with 16 points as the Richmond attack went toe-to-toe with the Red Foxes (6-2), led by NBA-prospect Jared Jordan. Richmond senior Peter Thomas also reached double-figures with 10 points.
Richmond scored a season-high 36 points in the paint, and despite losing the battle of the boards 39-37, had nine second-chance points compared to just two for Marist.
"We were able to score inside, we were able to do a lot of things well that we wanted to do offensively," Richmond head coach Chris Mooney said. "Everything we did offensively was pretty positive and we didn't have many turnovers. We didn't shoot well but that's going to happen."
Jordan and fellow senior Whittington each scored 30 points in the game for Marist. All eight of Whittington's field goals were 3-pointers. Jordan, who led the nation in assists last year, dished out eight Saturday night.
"That's a really difficult style to play against," Marist head coach Matt Brady said. "People make a big deal about their offense, but I think their defense is tremendous and they are going to really get better and better over this year and the years go forward. We're happy to get out of here with a win."
Richmond's bench contributed 25 of the team's 73 points in the contest, including eight from freshman Kevin Hovde in just 15 minutes of playing time.
Jordan scored 13 of Marist's 24 first-half points, but the Spiders (3-3) went into the locker room with a three-point lead.
After Jordon knocked down a 3-pointer with 17:45 left in the second half, the Spiders went on an 8-0 run to push the score to 41-29. Richmond pushed that lead to 14 at 53-39 with 10:08 remaining, but Marist used a 19-4 run to get back within two with 2:22 left.
Richmond got the lead back to five on a 3-pointer by red-shirt freshman Ryan Butler with 1:05 remaining, but Jordan and Whittington would lead Marist's last-minute comeback.
Jordan made a lay-up to close the gap to three with 55 seconds left and then Marist senior Will Whittington made a 3-pointer to tie the game with 11 seconds left. Richmond freshman David Gonzalvez got a shot off in the paint as time expired, but it rolled out.
Whittington made a 3-pointer on the first possession of overtime and Marist never looked back.
"The effort was there tonight, the intensity was there and we made some plays," Richmond's Thomas said. "Ninety-five percent of the game we played pretty well."
Geriot led Richmond in the extra period with four points but the Spiders could not stop Jordan and Whittington. The two guards combined to score 14 of their team's 17 overtime points.
Richmond red-shirt freshman Ryan Butler contributed 16 points in 38 minutes played and senior forward Peter Thomas added 10 points in 39 minutes on the floor.
Spider junior center Drew Crank played a season-high 16 minutes as he gets back to full strength after injuring himself in preseason. Crank scored six points and grabbed five rebounds.
Both teams kept control of the ball on offense, committing a combined 23 turnovers. The Spiders managed to score 12 points of their 12 takeaways.
The Spiders hit the road to face South Florida on Tuesday. The Bulls are 4-0 and are led by senior forward Melvin Buckley, who is averaging 22.8 points per game.
