University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
Missouri
Wins Over Missouri And Mississippi State Give Spiders South Padre Title
11/29/2009 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 28, 2009
SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas - Senior David Gonzalvez scored 18 points and junior Kevin Anderson had 14 as Richmond won the South Padre Island Invitational with a 59-52 win over Missouri on Saturday night.
The Spiders, who defeated Mississippi State 63-62 on Friday, improved to 6-1 on the season, the best start for Richmond since the 2000-01 season. In two days the Spiders defeated the reigning SEC Champion Mississippi State and the reigning Big 12 Champion Missouri.
"Obviously to get wins against programs like Mississippi State and Missouri on back-to-back days to win this prestigious tournament is something we are very proud of," Richmond head coach Chris Mooney said.
The last four winners of the South Padre Island Invitational were Illinois twice, Vanderbilt and Oklahoma State.
Richmond's defense held The Fastest 40 Minutes In Basketball to just 52 points and zero fastbreak points. The Spiders held Missouri to 32.7 percent shooting, the sixth time in as many victories that Richmond has held the opposition under 35-percent shooting.
In similar fashion to Friday night's win over Mississippi State, the Spiders led for most of the game, found themselves trailing with under eight minutes left, but came back to pull out the victory over a team from a BCS conference. The victory was Richmond's third-straight against teams from a BCS conference (St. John's, Mississippi State, Missouri) and Chris Mooney's sixth win over a team from a BCS conference in his five seasons at Richmond.
The Spiders led by seven at the half and by nine in the opening minutes of the second half, but Missouri crept back in the game mostly from the foul line as the Tigers only made seven second-half field goals and just 16 for the game.
Richmond still led by one with 7:29 to play, but Laurence Bowers made a jumper to put the Tigers (4-1) up for the first time since the 3:30 mark in the first half.
Richmond's Kevin Smith was fouled and made two free throws with 5:15 to play to regain the lead, and after three more free throws from Missouri put the Tigers up 48-46 with 4:45 to play, Gonzalvez connected on a clutch three-pointer that put the Spiders up for good.
Ryan Butler (9 points), made a backdoor layup off a pass from Gonzalvez to give Richmond a 51-48 lead with 3:14 to play and the Spiders made free throws and had an old-fashioned three-point play by Gonzalvez on an intentional foul to seal the win.
Anderson, who hit the winning shot against Mississippi State Friday night, was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player. Gonzalvez and Butler joined him on the All-Tournament Team.
Richmond returns to action against Old Dominion (4-2), who was also in the South Padre Island Invitational, on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Robins Center.
