Richmond advances to the second round of the CBI

When the University of Richmond men's basketball team needed a big shot, it was senior Jarhon Giddings who delivered.

It was Giddings' three-pointer from the corner that broke a 61-61 tie and gave Richmond the lead for good as the Spiders defeated St. John's University 75-69 in the Robins Center during the first round of the College Basketball Invitational. Now Giddings will get at least one more game to play before his career ends.

"If we have an opportunity to play the next day, I always want to play," Giddings said. "I love the game, I love playing."

Richmond used a frantic second-half comeback to take the lead after trailing for most of the first half and by eight at halftime. The Spiders drained seven out of 10 three-pointers en route to outscoring the Red Storm 42-28 during the second half.

"[Richmond's] best players got hot in the second half and we knew they were going to," St. John's coach Norm Roberts said. "We didn't do a very good job of covering them. We let them get into a comfort zone which we knew we couldn't do."

Last year, Richmond lost during the first round of the CBI to the University of Virginia 66-64.

"We were thinking about the Virginia game," junior David Gonzalvez said. "We got a sour taste from that game. We felt like we should have beaten them ... We wanted to come out here and get this. Coach [Chris Mooney] really got after us at halftime. He just let us know this is a big opportunity we have here at home versus St. John's."

Before the game, Mooney felt that shooting the ball better would be a key for his team to get the win. It was as the Spiders outscored the Red Storm 36-9 from beyond the arc.

"Over the past month and a half we've been playing very well, but we haven't shot great," Mooney said. "You have to have games where you shoot well once in a while, especially against a team like Saint John's out the the Big East [Conference]."

Gonzalvez lead the way for the Spiders by scoring a game-high 27 points. He connected on five of seven three-pointers.

The Red Storm controlled the paint during the first half. Richmond was out-rebounded during the half by 10 and St. John's scored 32 out of their 41 points during the half from within the paint. Many of the points came from lay-ups off of Richmond turnovers.

"The transition was everything," Mooney said. "Once we were able to limit their transition points -- which usually we are very good at doing but not at all in the first half today -- we were able to defend them in the half court."

Sophomore Kevin Anderson finished the game with 20 points and Giddings contributed with 16 points.

With the win, Richmond will advance to the second round of the CBI. The Spiders will host the College of Charleston on March 23. The College of Charleston won against Troy University on March 18 to advance to the second round.

St. John's played a physical game, which is a trademark of a Big East team. That hurt the Red Storm as their players got into foul trouble. Six of their players finished the game with three or more fouls.

Mooney was given a technical foul during the first half for arguing with the referees after Anderson was called for an offensive foul.

Sophomore Justin Burrell of the Red Storm also added to the physicality of the game when he shoved Richmond sophomore Kevin Smith after the referees blew the whistle to end the play. Burrell was given a technical foul for that shove.

The game started out badly for the Spiders. Richmond had a 5-4 lead early on, but a 15-0 run by the Red Storm during the next 4:29 gave St. John's control of the game for most of the first half.

"We came out a little intimidated by the fact that they are a Big-East team," Giddings said. "We talked about it at halftime. They are a team like we are a team, they play basketball just like we play basketball no matter where you are from or what conference you are in. The change in attitude and demeanor- being more aggressive on offense and defense-really helped us out in the second half."

Contact staff writer Andrew Prezioso at andrew.prezioso@richmond.edu