University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
Virginia
Spiders Overtaken At Virginia, 66-64
03/18/2008 | Men's Basketball
March 18, 2008
Box Score |
Quotes |
Notes
| SpiderTV Wrap-Up 
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Richmond led Virginia by 12 with 8:41 to play, but the Cavaliers would cut into the lead and senior All-American Sean Singletary made the go-ahead jumper with 1:16 left in the Cavaliers' 66-64 win Tuesday night in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational.
"I thought our guys played really well, and I wish we could have won the game at the end, but I am very proud of our effort," Richmond head coach Chris Mooney said. "I think we have many great things in our future."
Richmond sophomore Dan Geriot scored 10 of his game-high 22 points during a 16-5 run that gave the Spiders a 61-49 lead with 8:41 to play. The Spiders offense, which was torching the Cavaliers to the point Virginia coach Dave Leitao used three timeouts in 1:18, managed just one field goal the rest of the game.
"We were getting exposed and carved up on the defensive end," Leitao said. "That's obviously not too pleasing and something that we have to find a way through. Before you know it, you're down ten, and everybody in the arena including myself, thought it was over."
Sophomore David Gonzalvez scored 13 points and freshman Kevin Anderson had 11 points. Freshman Kevin Smith neared a double-double with nine points and eight rebounds.
The Spiders, who were going for their second win over an ACC team this season, led 33-31 at the half and pushed that lead to six in the first minute of the second half after a pair of three-pointers by sophomores Dan Geriot and David Gonzalvez.
Virginia trailed by just two (48-46) with 13:33 left, but the Spiders would go on a 9-0 run behind seven-straight points from Geriot to take a 57-46 lead with 10:57 to play.
A layup by sophomore Ryan Butler gave the Spiders their largest lead of the game at 61-49 with 8:41, but Richmond was out-scored 17-3 for the remainder of the game. Virginia made five free throws and hit two jumpers to quickly close the gap to 62-58 with 6:27 to play. Virginia cut the gap to 62-60 on a layup by Mamadi Diane with 4:04 left, but Richmond freshman Kevin Anderson hit a runner to push the lead back to four with 3:30 left.
Virginia's Adrian Joseph made a key three-pointer to close the gap to one with 3:04 left and then Singletary made a jumper in the lane with 1:16 remaining to put the Cavaliers up for the first time since the 2:51 mark in the first half.
The Spiders had chances to regain the lead in the final minute, but missed two jumpers, including one after Smith appeared to be tripped on a drive to the basket.
After Joseph made 1-of-2 free throws, Richmond had the ball down by two with eight seconds left. Since Virginia had committed only two fouls in the second half, the Cavaliers opted for the strategy of fouling Richmond in the backcourt with 4.2 seconds left.
With three more fouls still to give before Richmond would be in the bonus, there was the chance that Richmond would not even get the ball into the front court. Head coach Chris Mooney decided to try to surprise Virginia with a Hail Mary play to Smith, but the ball went out of bounds.
"I thought that they would just keep fouling us. Kevin is a great athlete, and we thought that if we threw it up there, he might be able to catch it," Mooney said. "The second play would be to throw it to half court and then call another timeout. We would just be inching down the court, and I thought that maybe we could catch them a little bit with Kevin's athleticism."
The Spiders finish the season 16-15 overall after making their fifth postseason appearance in the last eight years. Richmond finished fourth in the Atlantic 10, equaling its best finish since joining the league seven years ago.
"We had some goals coming into the season and two of them were to have finish fourth in the Atlantic 10 and play in the postseason," Gonzalvez said. "We accomplished that, so now we have to work hard in the offseason and raise our goals for next season."
Richmond seniors Gaston Moliva and Oumar Sylla played in their last game in a Spider uniform on Tuesday night. Sylla had five points, making 1 three-pointer, to go with four assists and three steals. Moliva had a dunk and tied a career high with four blocks. He finishes his career fourth on Richmond's all-time list with 133 blocks, just two behind Jeff Pehl (1979-83), who is third on the career list.
