University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
UMBC
UMBC Squeaks By Richmond, 70-68
11/17/2007 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 17, 2007
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UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - The Richmond men's basketball team let a late-game lead slip away for the second time in as many home games this season, falling to UMBC 70-68 Saturday in the Robins Center.
The Spiders led by seven with under four minutes remaining, but the Retrievers (3-0) went on a 13-4 run to close the game, capped by a steal and dunk by Cavell Johnson with 3.2 second left.
Last Saturday night, Richmond had an 11-point lead with just over four minutes left against Norfolk State, but a 16-2 run to close the game sent the Spiders to the loss. Richmond is dressing an extremely young team - with 10 of the 13 active players in their freshmen or sophomore year. The youth pulled out an overtime win at East Carolina on Tuesday, but Saturday's final minutes in the Robins Center were eerily similar to last Saturday night.
"With so many young guys it's hard, that's the nature of being so young," Richmond head coach Chris Mooney said. "It's going to be up and down."
Four of Richmond's games have been decided by three points or less, with the Spiders 2-2 in those games. The problem has been the two home games when Richmond has not been able to sustain leads in the closing minutes.
"I really don't know what it is," sophomore Ryan Butler said. "We're right there every single game. We can't seem to close. We can't get a stop when we need to. If we make one play, we get one stop, they have to start fouling."
Richmond (2-3) shot 49-percent from the field and scored 38 points in the paint, but the Retrievers would not go away. The Spiders took their largest lead of the game with 4:09 to play at 64-57, but UMBC came back to tie the game at 68-68 with 29 seconds left and forced the Spiders into a turnovers which turned into a dunk at the other end.
A desperation 3-pointer by the Spiders was offline as UMBC won its second-straight game in an Atlantic 10 arena. The Retrievers defeated La Salle on Tuesday night 76-69.
Richmond freshman Kevin Anderson led the Spiders with a career-high 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Sophomore Ryan Butler had 11 points, making two 3-pointers, and had six rebounds, three blocks and three steals. Sophomore Dan Geriot had 10 points and senior Oumar Sylla had nine points and eight rebounds.
Senior Oumar Sylla had nine points and eight rebounds and sophomore David Gonzalvez also had nine points.
"I thought we got some good contributions from a number of different guys," Mooney said. "We had six guys with nine or more points, so that's good balanced scoring."
Johnson led the Retrievers with a season-high 20 points. Brian Hodges added 17, Darryl Proctor 14 and Ray Barbosa 11.
The Spiders hit the road for two games, playing at Rice on Tuesday and at Marist on Saturday.
