University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
No. 24 Temple (Atlantic 10 Semifinals)
Spiders Clip No. 24 Temple To Reach Second-Straight A-10 Title Game
03/12/2011 | Men's Basketball
March 12, 2011
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - Richmond defeated No. 24 ranked Temple 58-54 Saturday in the Atlantic 10 semifinals to advance to its second-straight A-10 title game.
The Spiders play for the A-10 Championship Sunday at 1 p.m. against Dayton on CBS with Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery.
Richmond moves to 26-7 overall, tying a school-record for wins with the 1987-88 team and last year's squad. The Spiders have won six-straight, 13 of the last 15 and 15 of the last 18. Richmond, which finished A-10 play 13-3, has avenged two of its conference losses in the last two days with wins over Rhode Island and Temple.
Saturday's win over Temple was the Spiders' second win over a ranked opponent this season as Richmond had previously knocked off No. 8 Purdue Nov. 27. Richmond has won six of the last eight games against ranked teams and seven of the last 11 against ranked opponents.
Kevin Anderson notched his second-straight game-high performance with 22 points off 8-of-17 from the field. Justin Harper followed with 18 tallies and nine boards. All Defensive selection Kevin Smith pulled down a career-high 14 boards.
The game was a back-and-forth affair through all of the first frame and most of the second, but the momentum seemed to shift in Richmond's favor after a pivotal 8-0 run put the Spiders ahead 53-47 with 7:21 remaining.
Temple would cut the lead to one and even go ahead 54-53 with 5:02 left but Richmond settled in and regained the lead it would not relinquish courtesy of a Harper layup.
Richmond improved to 3-1 in A-10 semifinal games and advanced to its second-straight title game.
Richmond looks for its first conference crown and will be making its third championship game appearance.
The Spiders took this year's meeting with the Flyers, 60-51, Jan. 25 in Dayton with Anderson scoring a game-high 26 points.
