University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
WAKE FOREST
Spiders Lose Tough One To No. 10 Wake Forest 86-79
12/19/2008 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 19, 2008
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UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - Richmond was as close as four points with less than 1:15 to play, but No. 10 Wake Forest pulled out an 86-79 victory over the Spiders Friday night in the Robins Center.
A layup by sophomore Justin Harper cut Wake Forest's lead to 78-74 with 1:35 to play, but standout point guard Jeff Teague made a driving layup to make it a six-point advantage with 1:12 to play and Wake held on for its 10th victory in as many games.
"Once again we were able to score the ball, even though we didn't shoot the ball well from the three-point line," Richmond head coach Chris Mooney said. "We need to become a better defensive team. It's what we spend most of our time doing, we need to continue to commit ourselves to getting better on defense."
Teague led Wake with 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds. Chas McFarland had 20 points and 14 rebounds.
Richmond sophomore Kevin Anderson scored 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting. Junior David Gonzalvez had 18 points and three assists, while senior Jarhon Giddings had 12 points and eight boards. Sophomore Justin Harper had nine points, while sophomore Kevin Smith and redshirt freshmen Josh Duinker had six apiece.
In a game that featured two of the top-10 field goal percentage shooting teams in the nation, Wake Forest (3rd) shot 50.9 percent and Richmond (8th) shot 47.7 percent. The Spiders had their worst three-point shooting night of the season, connecting on just 5-of-22 from behind the arc.
The Spiders outscored the Demon Deacons in the paint 48-46 and had 25 points off turnovers. Wake Forest made 27-of-33 free throws, while Richmond connected on 12-of-19.
Despite making just 1-of-10 three-point field goals before the break, the Spiders trailed by just two at halftime (37-35).
Richmond took a 41-40 lead on a three-pointer by Gonzalvez with 17:11 left in the game. Wake came back to take a 47-42 lead with 15:18 to play, but a three-pointer by Justin Harper, jumper by Anderson and steal and fast-break layup had the Spiders within one (52-51) with 11:28 to play.
Wake Forest again responded, this time pushing the lead to double-figures, but again the Spiders were able to close the gap to four with 2:04 remaining on a fast-break layup by Anderson.
In the last six minutes of the game, Wake Forest made just three field goals, but the Demon Deacons connected on 13-of-15 free throws.
Richmond forced 21 turnovers and tied a season high with 12 steals. Richmond also had a season-low 11 turnovers.
"We seem to be able to force turnovers, but when we don't force turnovers I think the rate of their scoring is just too high," Mooney said. "I like that we force turnovers and steal the ball, we just need to be better when we don't do that, guarding guys in every spot."
The Spiders dropped to 5-5, but have two single-digit losses to teams currently ranked among the top-11 teams in the nation. Richmond lost to now No. 11 ranked Syracuse 76-71 on Nov. 18.
Richmond hosts Bucknell on Monday night at 7 p.m. in the Robins Center before breaking for Christmas
"This is the kind of game that we could spring from here and go on and be very good in our next stretch," Mooney said. "Certainly we want to win, but the things we know about ourselves and our ability to score and our ability to compete with everybody is all positive. It's just up to us to get better at those things that need improvement."
