University of Richmond
Saint Louis
Saint Louis Spoils Spiders' Shot At Second Place
02/10/2008 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 10, 2008
SpiderTV: MOONEY POST-GAME 
| HIGHLIGHTS
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - Dan Geriot scored 21 and David Gonzalvez added 17, but the Spiders dropped a defensive battle to Saint Louis, 64-55, Sunday afternoon at the Robins Center.
Despite the loss, the Spiders (12-10, 5-4 Atlantic 10) are just one game out of second place with seven conference games remaining.
Rebounding and second-chance points were the story of the game for the Billikens, who improved to 13-10 overall and 4-5 in A-10 action. The visitors owned a 41-27 edge on boards and outscored the Spiders 17-4 in second-chance opportunities.
The Spiders needing a win to creep into second place in the A-10, slowly recovered from an ice-cold first half in which they scored 21 points on 7-for-27 shooting. Geriot swished a three-pointer to pull Richmond within one at 34-33 and another basket from the sophomore knotted the game at 35-35 with 13:03 remaining.
Saint Louis received a big lift off the bench from Danny Brown - one of two Billikens' with 14 points to pace a balanced attack. The senior netted four points in an 11-2 run over the next five minutes. A Kevin Lisch three capped the rally and Saint Louis led 46-37 with 8:13 left on the clock.
Lisch also scored 14 (two more than he scored in a wild final minute Wednesday as SLU rallied to almost beat No. 13 Xavier on Thursday), while Tommie Liddell III added 12 points and Barry Eberhardt scored 10 off the bench.
In a game defined by runs, Richmond had one more left in the tank and out-scored Saint Louis 12-2 over the next four minutes thanks to seven straight points by Gonzalvez - two free throws, a breakaway dunk and a three pointer. Gaston Moliva's reverse layup in traffic put the Spiders up 49-48 - their first lead since 13-12.
The Billikens took back the lead with a mini 6-0 spurt and made good on all eight of their free-throw attempts in the game's final 38 seconds to seal their 10th victory in 14 tries when holding an opponent under 60 points this season. Allowing 59.0 points per game, SLU is the A-10's best defensive club.
Richmond was just 19-for-53 in game (35.8 percent) and 7-for-23 from three-point range, dropping the Spiders to 3-9 when hoisting more than 20 treys this season.
Freshman Kevin Anderson scored eight points and added four assists, three rebounds and a steal. Geriot pulled down a team-high seven boards to go along with his seventh 20-point game this year. Gonzalvez was in double-figures for the fifth time in six games.
A three from Oumar Sylla gave the Spiders a 13-11 cushion midway through the first half, but SLU locked down on the defensive end and held Richmond without a field goal over the next 8:17.
While Richmond was mired in an 0-for-9 drought (0-for-6 from behind the arc), Saint Louis built its lead up to nine (23-14) with 4:17 left and took a 28-21 lead into halftime.
Richmond has six days off before returning to action on the road at Duquesne next Saturday in a battle of up-start A-10 teams. The Dukes are 15-7 overall, tied with the Spiders for sixth at 5-4 in a logged-jammed A-10 race and coming off a pair of back-to-back 100-point performances in wins over Saint Joseph's and La Salle.
Tip off is set for 7 p.m. at the Palumbo Center in Pittsburgh.
