University of Richmond
Dayton
Cold-Shooting First Half Dooms Men's Basketball
01/20/2007 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 20, 2007
DAYTON, Ohio - The Richmond men's basketball team entered Saturday's game at Dayton shooting 46.4 percent from the field, but the Spiders made just 11 percent of its shot in the first half to dig a hole that was too much to overcome in a 72-54 loss.
The Spiders did not give up playing, despite making just 3-of-26 shots in the first half. Richmond would shoot 59.4 percent in the second half (19-of-32), but the Flyers shot 71.4 percent (15-of-21) to hold off any Spider hopes for a comeback.
"We just weren't making shots," Richmond head coach Chris Mooney said of the first half. "We missed five lay-ups, four or five wide-open 3s, we didn't convert some fast-break opportunities, we missed everything."
The Flyers shot 60.4 percent for the game and Richmond shot 37.9 percent, just the fifth time in 18 games that the Spiders have shot under 40 percent from the floor.
"I thought we hung in there and played as hard as possible," Mooney said. "They shot great. That's a tough thing when you don't shoot well and the other team shoots great."
Richmond red-shirt freshman Ryan Butler led the Spiders with 11 points and seven rebounds. Freshman Dan Geriot also reached double-figures with 10 points.
Freshman David Gonzalvez scored nine points and dished out four assists, while senior Peter Thomas had nine points.
Brian Roberts led Dayton (13-5, 3-2 Atlantic 10) with 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting, including 4-of-5 from behind the 3-point arc. Jimmy Binnie had 12 points and Monty Scott added 11.
The Spiders will play at La Salle on Wednesday night at 7 p.m., before returning home to host St. Bonaventure on Saturday at 7 p.m.
