University of Richmond
St. Bonaventure
Spiders Top St. Bonaventure, 71-66
01/10/2007 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 10, 2007
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. - Freshman David Gonzalvez scored a career-high 24 points and grabbed a career-high eight rebounds to lead the Richmond men's basketball team to a 71-66 win over St. Bonaventure on Wednesday night at the Reilly Center.
"For us, this is a big win. Any win is a big win, but for us, especially to win our first Atlantic 10 road game, that's huge," Richmond head coach Chris Mooney said. "We played with composure the entire night and we played with confidence the entire night. Those are great things to see from our young guys."
Gonzalvez made a career-high four 3-pointers, including a long trey with the shot clock about to expire that gave the Spiders a seven-point lead with 1:51 to play. Gonzalvez backcourt mate, freshman Brian Morris, reached double-figures for the fourth time in the last five games with 12 points.
"Our backcourt was very good," Mooney said. "Brian Morris are going to be very good basketball players. We have trust in those guys."
Richmond shot 50 percent from the field for the second-straight game and had a balanced attack with five players scoring eight points or more and nine of the 10 players to see action scoring. Sophomore Oumar Sylla, making his season debut, scored nine points and grabbed five rebounds. Freshmen Dan Geriot and Kevin Hovde had eight points apiece.
The Spiders trailed 35-30 at the half, but outscored the Bonnies 18-6 over the first nine minutes of the second half to take a 48-41 lead. St. Bonaventure came back and would take a 53-52 lead with 6:50 to play. Hovde made his second 3-pointer of the game to give the Spiders the lead for good at 55-53. Sylla made a running hook shot in the lane that gave the Spiders a 60-57 edge with 4:10 to play and Gonzalvez hit his fade-away 3-pointer with the shot clock running out to put Richmond up seven at 65-58 with 1:51 to play.
St. Bonaventure closed the gap to two at 65-63, but Richmond's Geriot, who went out with a deep thigh bruise with 3:13 to play, came up with some dramatic heroics. He back into the game at the 1:08 mark and on his first possession back, made a tough shot in the paint to give the Spiders a 67-63 lead.
"The next thing I know they said that Geriot's ready. I said `wow, let's get him in there.' That's a big time shot," Mooney said.
"Once I saw the opening I just took it," Geriot said. "The adrenaline took over."
A 3-pointer by Zarry Feretti pulled the Bonnies within one at 67-66 with 25 seconds left, but Sylla made two free throws to give the Spiders a three-point lead. Tyler Relph's 3-pointer to tie was off line, Morris came down with the rebound in traffic and made both free throws to ice the game. Fereti led the way for the Bonnies (4-11, 1-1) with 14 points. Paul Williams added 11 points, A.J. Hawkins recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Michael Lee contributed 10 points.
Richmond (5-10, 1-1 Atlantic 10) will host Charlotte on Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Robins Center.
