Men's basketball makes history in victory over VMI

The University of Richmond men's basketball team set a school record with 31 assists in a 103-59 victory against the Virginia Military Institute on Monday night.

The previous high was 30 in a 132-69 victory against Bluefield College on Dec. 3, 1979. Junior Kevin Anderson led the team with eight assists and senior David Gonzalvez added six of his own.

It was the first time Richmond has scored 100 points since Jan. 29, 1996 in a 105-91 victory against George Mason University. Junior Justin Harper led the team in scoring with 21 points. Junior Dan Geriot and Gonzalvez each scored 17 points, Anderson added 14 and sophomore Josh Duinker contributed 10 points. In total, 13 players scored against VMI.

Richmond was able to beat the full-court pressure VMI applied throughout the game. Richmond's point guards conducted the offense past the pressure and found cutters who were able to get easy layups.

"If you attack pressure with pressure, some of the things are just open in the court," Anderson said. "It's just like a three-on-two every time."

Richmond held a 60-14 advantage in points in the paint. The Spiders shot 63.1 percent after struggling to score 65 points during the season opener against Lehigh University on Nov. 13.

"We didn't play well on offense against Lehigh in the opener," Richmond coach Chis Mooney said. "We wanted to make sure we played more of our style of offense, which is passing the ball and getting everybody involved."

Richmond broke the 100 mark when freshman Jonathan Benjamin hit a jumper from the left baseline for his first career points. That basket with 1:59 left in the game made it 101-56. A dunk by Duinker with 1:02 left finished the scoring for Richmond.

Despite the offensive outburst, Mooney said he was happier with his team limiting VMI to only 59 points. VMI led the nation in scoring last year, averaging 98.3 points per game. In its season opener, VMI scored 93 points against Army on Nov. 13.

"This is a team that can really score a ton of points and will probably lead the country in scoring again," Mooney said. "To hold them to 59 in a game that was up-and-down is a credit to our guys."

Richmond took the lead less than 30 seconds into the game with a jumper by Anderson. The Spiders never gave up that lead and held VMI scoreless for more than six minutes as Richmond pulled off a 20-0 run to go up 34-11 and break open the game.

Sophomore Keith Gabriel was the only Keydet to score in double figures with 17 points. He had a stretch of two minutes when he hit four three-pointers that cut a 27-point Richmond lead to 18 with 3:56 left during the first half. His shooting was not duplicated by his teammates and the Keydets trailed 50-29 at the half.

After the break, Richmond continued to play strong defense and held VMI without points during the first four minutes of the half. During that time the Spiders scored 10 points and made the only question remaining about the game whether or not they would be able to break 100 points.

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