University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
St. John's
Spiders Storm Past St. John's In CBI First Round, 75-69
03/19/2009 | Men's Basketball
March 18, 2009
| INTERVIEWS
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - Junior David Gonzalvez scored 27 points and sophomore Kevin Anderson had 20 as Richmond overcame a 14-point first-half deficit to defeat St. John's 75-69 Wednesday in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational.
Richmond improved to 19-15 overall and advance to play Bobby Cremins and the College of Charleston on Monday night in the CBI quarterfinals at the Robins Center.
Gonzalvez made 9-of-17 field goals, including 5-of-7 three-pointers, on his way to his to his fourth game scoring 25 or more points in his career, including his third this season. This was the fourth time in his career that he has made at least five three-pointers in a game. He also dished out four assists.
With his 27 points, Gonzalvez jumped from 25th to 22nd on the Spiders' all-time scoring list with 1,177 points, passing Tom Green (1,159), Kevin Eastman (1,162) and Butch Lambiotte (1,163). He also took over sole possession of fifth on the school's all-time list for career three-pointers with 156.
Anderson scored 20 points for his fifth-straight 20-point game. The second-team All-Atlantic 10 selection has 10 20-point games this season, including seven in the last 10 games.
Spider senior Jarhon Giddings helped keep his career going with 16 points and five rebounds. Giddings made 5-of-8 field goals, including a season-high three three-pointers in four attempts.
The Spiders scored 70 points for the 19th time this season, the most 70-point games for Richmond since the 1993-94 team also had 19. Richmond has held 10 of its last 11 opponents under 70 points.
Richmond was out-rebounded 48-25 and St. John's had 21 second-chance points, but the Spiders picked up their defensive pressure after allowing the Red Storm to shoot 62.1 percent (18-29) in the first half.
St. John's had won three of the last five and four of the last seven against Big East competition, including two victories over Georgetown in the month of March.
The Red Storm came out of the gates aggressive, forcing a Richmond team averaging an Atlantic 10 leading 11.9 turnovers per game to six turnovers in the first six minutes. St. John's led 19-5 seven minutes into the game and had the lead back to 14 at 29-15 and 37-23 with 4:18 to play.
Richmond went on a 10-2 run to cut the gap to six in the final minute of the half and went into the locker room down 41-33. The Spiders quickly cut the lead down to tow (44-42) four minutes in and took their first lead since the opening minutes on an old-fashioned three-point play by Kevin Anderson with 14:30 to play.
The Spiders built a seven-point lead with 11:12 to play, but St. John's came back to tie the game at 61-61 with 6:06 to play. Giddings scored five-straight as the Spiders pushed the lead to four and a three-pointer by Anderson, followed by a pair of free throws had Richmond up nine with 2:26 left.
