University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
Charlotte
Comeback Moves Spiders Into Second Place In A-10
02/20/2008 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 20, 2008
SpiderTV: PRESS CONFERENCE 
| HIGHLIGHTS
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - Sophomore David Gonzalvez scored 13 of his 20 points in the game's final 6:22 as Richmond defeated Charlotte 79-76 in overtime Wednesday in the Robins Center.
The victory was Richmond's fourth in the last five games and 10th in the last 14, improving the Spiders to 14-10 overall. Richmond moves into a tie for second place at 7-4 in the Atlantic 10, its best 11-game conference start since 2001-02.
Gonzalvez, who had scored at least 17 points in the previous four home games, had just seven points with Richmond trailing by four with under a minute and a half remaining. He made a bucket in the lane to cut the gap to 62-60 with 1:22 left in regulation and, after a steal by freshman Kevin Smith, he added a driving lay-up with 25 seconds left to tie the game.
A block by senior Gaston Moliva helped send the game into overtime, where Gonzalvez scored the first nine of the Spiders' 17 points in the extra session.
Charlotte had a 68-65 lead with 3:30 to play in overtime when Gonzalvez, who came into the game third in the Atlantic 10 in three-point field goal percentage, made his first trey of the night on his sixth attempt.
Gonzalvez followed with a jumper to give Richmond its first lead of the extra session (70-68), but Charlotte's Lamont Mack, who finished with a game-high 27 points, answered with a three-pointer to put the 49ers back up one.
That's when Smith came up with another steal and found senior Oumar Sylla who took off on the break. Sylla finished off a lay-up, was fouled and made the free throw to put the Spiders up for good, 74-71. . Freshman Kevin Anderson, who has earned Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week in three of the last five weeks, scored 19 points while playing 43 of the game's 45 minutes. Sophomore Dan Geriot had 11 points and six boards, while Jarhon Giddings had nine points and Moliva had eight points and seven rebounds.
Sylla had seven points, four rebounds and a season-high four assists, while Smith had five rebounds, two assists and the key steals.
Mack made 5-of-8 three-pointers on his way to the game-high 27 points for Charlotte. An'Juan Wilderness had 18 points and Charlie Coley had 12.
Richmond's defense continued to hold the other team's top scorers down. Charlotte's Leemire Goldwire entered the game third in the Atlantic 10 in scoring at 19.9 per game, but was held to a season-low four points. Richmond held Goldwire to his previous season-low of five points in the game on Feb. 2. In 23 games this season when Goldwire has not played the Spiders he is averaging 20.5 points per game and has scored in double-figures in all but one of those 23 games.
Charlotte led 34-25 at the half and opened up the second half with two quick buckets to take a 13-point lead with 19:01 remaining. But the Spiders would go on a 16-2 run to take a 41-40 lead. The 49ers responded with a 16-4 burst to go back up by 11 (56-45) with 7:36 remaining, but the Spiders came right back with a 17-6 run to close regulation.
The Spiders hit the road for the next two games, starting with a Saturday afternoon 2 p.m. tip-off at George Washington.
