University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
South Florida
Spiders Topple Big East Team For Third-Straight Season
12/05/2006 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 5, 2006
Box Score | Quotes | Notes | Highlights
TAMPA, Fla. - Senior Peter Thomas scored a career-high 19 points to lead the Richmond men's basketball team to a 56-46 victory over South Florida on Tuesday night in the Sun Dome.
The win gave the Spiders a victory over a Big East Conference team for the third-straight season, after wins over Seton Hall the last two years.
Thomas connected on two 3-pointers and scored 12 of his 19 points in the second half as the Spiders improved to 4-3 on the season with their first road victory in two tries.
Thomas was the only Richmond player in double-figures in scoring, but freshman David Gonzalvez scored two big buckets in the last four minutes and sophomore Jarhon Giddings made a clutch 3-pointer with three minutes left as the Spiders held off a South Florida run. Gonzalvez finished the game with nine points and grabbed four rebounds.
The Spiders shot 52.9 percent from the field, their second game shooting over 50 percent this season and the sixth time in seven games Richmond has shot over 40 percent from the field.
Richmond held South Florida to 39.1 percent shooting, including 15.4 percent (2-of-13) from 3-point land. South Florida's leading scorer Melvin Buckley, who came into the game averaging 22.8 points per game, was held to eight points on 2-of-11 shooting.
"That was our best defensive effort," Mooney said. "I thought we really defended well, beginning with Buckley. He only had two 3s, they only had two 3s as a team, and that was the real emphasis."
Richmond opened up a six-point halftime lead and pushed the lead to 10 with two quick back-door lay-ups to start the second half by freshman Dan Geriot and red-shirt freshman Ryan Butler.
"What was important for us is we came out of halftime with a six-point lead and we extended it to 10 pretty quickly on two easy baskets that were great to see," Mooney said.
The Spiders kept the lead above six until a dunk by McHugh Mattis with 5:37 to play cut the gap to 41-36 and lay-up by Mattis trimmed the gap to three (41-38) with 4:49 to play.
On the very next possession the Spiders worked the ball around and were running out of time on the shot clock when Gonzalvez canned a 3-pointer off the dribble from the top of they key.
"I wanted to drive off the pick, but I look at the shot clock and I had no choice, I knew I had to pull up," Gonzalvez said.
South Florida answered with a jumper to slim the lead to 44-40 with 3:44 remaining, but this time Giddings found himself open on the right wing and buried a 3-pointer to push the lead to seven with 3:18 left.
After another lay-up by Mattis (21 points) moved USF within five (47-42) with 2:54 left, Gonzalvez had one more big shot, making a driving lay-up with 1:29 on the clock to put Richmond up 49-42.
"David is a very good player," Mooney said. "He's got this explosiveness in him, he's got a really strong body and he's a very competitive kid. I thought he was terrific tonight. The two plays he made were excellent
Thomas made four free throws and junior Drew Crank (6 points) made two in the final 38 seconds to ice the victory.
After its first trip outside of the state of Virginia, the Spiders return home to host city-rival VCU on Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Robins Center for the Farm Bureau Insurance Black & Blue Classic. A luncheon with Mooney and VCU head coach Anthony Grant will be held on Friday at 11:30 a.m. at Shula's 2 at 6624 West Broad Street. Cost is $15 per person.
