University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
DUQUESNE
Spiders Storm Back To Drop Dukes, 71-67
02/11/2009 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 11, 2009
| INTERVIEWS
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - Fresh off its victory over No. 9 ranked Xavier, Duquesne jumped out to a 15-point first half lead, but Richmond rallied to continue its mastery of the Dukes with a 71-67 on Wednesday night in the Robins Center.
Richmond has won all 12 conference meetings between the two schools since the Spiders joined the Atlantic 10 in the 2000-01 season.
Junior David Gonzalvez scored 16 points to lead five Spiders in double-figures. Sophomore Kevin Anderson had 14 points, sophomore Justin Harper had 13, while senior Jarhon Giddings and junior Ryan Butler each had 11.
The Dukes, who had won three of their last four games and entered the game at 15-7 overall and 6-3 in the Atlantic 10, jumped out to a 12-0 lead on the Spiders.
Richmond, which was coming off a heartbreaking triple overtime loss to Saint Louis on Sunday, clawed back into the game, but then found itself down 35-20 with 4:07 left in the first half.
The Spiders used a 6-0 run with a pair of layups by Justin Harper and a jumper by Kevin Anderson to close to within eight at the half. After Duquesne opened the half with a layup to push the lead to 10, the Spiders went on an 11-2 run to close within one and then tied the game at 40-40 on a jumper by Francis-Cedric Martel with 14:53 left.
Richmond's first lead of the game (49-48) came on an old-fashioned three-point play by Harper with 10:25 remaining. Richmond took a three-point lead (57-54) on back-to-back three-pointers by Ryan Butler and a layup by Jarhon Giddings put the Spiders up five (59-54) with 5:29 to play.
The Spiders never trailed the rest of the way, but the game was tied twice in the final three minutes.
A steal and layup by Martel had the Spiders up 61-58 with 3:50 left and then Anderson made three-straight jumpers to answer Duquesne buckets and keep the Spiders up 67-65 with 1:08 left.
Martel came up with a key block on a three-point attempt by Melquan Bolding and then Anderson made two free throws with 19 seconds left to put the Spiders up four.
Richmond's defense forced Duquesne to waste 16 seconds to get a layup with three seconds remaining.
After a timeout, Richmond got a layup by Gonzalvez to ice the game.
The Spiders (12-12, 4-5 Atlantic 10) return to action on Saturday at Dayton (22-3, 8-2 Atlantic 10), who defeated Xavier 71-58 on Wednesday.
