University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
DUQUESNE
Men's Basketball Downs Duquesne
02/14/2007 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 14, 2007
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| Highlights 
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - Freshman Brian Morris scored 14 points, including a 3-pointer with 32 seconds left to give the Spiders a 69-66 victory over Duquesne on Wednesday night in the Robins Center.
The Dukes had been averaging 90 points a game in winning five of their last six games, but Richmond held Duquesne to their lowest point total since adopting a fast-paced style of play eight games ago.
Richmond led by as many as 12 points with under 10 minutes to go, but the Dukes (10-13, 6-6 Atlantic 10) came back to take their first lead of the game at 65-64 on a old-fashioned three-point play by Gary Tucker with 1:26 left.
After a Spider turnover, Duquesne's Kieron Achara was fouled on his way to the basket and made 1-of-2 free throws to give the Dukes a 66-64 with 47 seconds left. Morris took a swing pass on the left wing, sold a defender on a pump fake, took one dribble and drained his career-high fourth 3-pointer of the night.
"We were struggling because we were almost giving them too much credit, then he steps in there and bangs a big one," Mooney said.
"I just gave a head fake to give me a little bit of separation," Morris said. "It felt good right away."
Junior Drew Crank made two clutch free throws and with Duquesne inbounding with 3.1 seconds left, Morris was able to deflect the pass to waste the clock down to 0.7 seconds remaining. Duquesne did not get off a shot before time expired, as the Spiders defeated the Dukes for the 10th-straight time.
"I was able to get my hand on the ball and then I tried to throw it to run some time off," Morris said. "Fortunately I got a piece of it and they didn't really have time to run a play."
Richmond freshman Dan Geriot joined Morris in double-figures with 12 points. Freshman David Gonzalvez had nine points and four assists. Crank had eight points, while red-shirt freshman Ryan Butler had eight points and six assists.
The Spiders led by as many as 11 points on three occasions in the first half and had a 41-33 advantage at intermission. Richmond took a 12-point lead on a 3-pointer by Morris with 9:27 to play and after Duquense's Aaron Jackson answered with a 3-pointer, a Gonzalvez trey put the Spiders up by 12 (64-52) with 8:13 to play.
That's when Richmond's offense stumbled, but the defense was able to keep Duquesne at bay.
"Even when we stopped scoring in the second half, it wasn't like they scored too easily or too quickly," Mooney said.
After a week off, the Spiders seemed reenergized and that showed on the boards as Richmond out-rebounded an opponent for just the third time this season. The Spiders held a 30-27 advantage on the glass and grabbed nine offensive rebounds that led to 11 second-chance points. Duquesne had just four second-chance points.
"That was a big thing," Morris said. "We weren't giving up second chance points."
Duquesne's Reggie Jackson and Achara led Duquesne with 13 points each. Leading scorer Robert Mitchell entered the night averaging 17 points a game, but was held to just five.
Richmond will start a two-game road trip at Xavier on Saturday at 6 p.m. in Cincinnati, before playing at George Washington on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. Richmond returns home for senior night on Feb. 24 against Saint Joseph's at 7:00 p.m.
