Strong defensive effort gives Richmond win over UTC

The University of Richmond men's basketball team used a 14-0 run to start the game to defeat the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga 75-49 during the first round of the South Padre Island Invitational.

During its previous game against the College of William & Mary, Richmond ran out to an early lead, but saw the Tribe storm back and win 78-71. During the game against Chattanooga, the Spiders kept their intensity for the whole game.

"We came out [at] William & Mary good, but the thing there was we didn't keep it up," junior Kevin Anderson said. "We kept it up tonight and came away with a win."

Richmond kept Chattanooga scoreless until the 14:13 mark of the first half when junior DeAntre Jefferson made a layup. The Spiders applied defensive pressure during the whole game and caused the Mocs to have 23 turnovers and make only 16 baskets.

"For us to be able to continue to play good defense and really be on every assignment and [not] give up many easy shots, I thought that was really a big key to the game," Richmond coach Chris Mooney said.

Richmond was able to hold sophomore Keegan Bell to only two points, despite his team-high average of 17.5 points per game.

A three-pointer by Anderson early during the second half gave Anderson 1,002 career points. He is the 38th Spider to have 1,000 points during a career and is only the 11th to reach the mark as a junior. Anderson finished the game with 23 points.

"Its a big accomplishment," Anderson said. "I know that. But I'll embrace it more when I'm older."

Anderson credited Mooney's Princeton Offense for allowing the option to cut towards the basket and get easy layups.

"With the Princeton Offense, there's a lot of opportunities to drive," Anderson said. "When I see an opportunity to drive I take it."

The whole team exemplified that ability to cut to the basket as the Spiders outscored the Mocs 26-18 in points in the paint. Richmond also held a 43-33 advantage in rebounding.

Junior Dan Geriot led the team with 10 rebounds, but shot 1-7 from the field for two points. Geriot came into the game averaging more than 11 points per game.

"He's probably pressing, trying to get last year back to a certain degree," Mooney said about Geriot, a center who missed all of last year with a torn knee ligament. "But I don't worry about that. I think that we want to throw him the ball every time we can on offense and I think that's going to be effective. He's going to wind up the season with good numbers and a great year."

As a team, the Spiders struggled with shooting, making only 29 of 73 shots. But they were able to secure 18 offensive rebounds and score 20 second-chance points.

Richmond got scoring from 10 players. Besides Anderson's 23 points, sophomore Francis-Cedric Martel was the only other Spider to score in double figures, adding 10 points off the bench.

With the win, Richmond improved to 3-1 with all three wins coming at home. During those wins, Richmond has outscored its opponents 243-161.

Chattanooga won the Southern Conference last year and lost during the first round of the NCAA Tournament to the University of Connecticut. The Mocs started off this year at 2-0.

This was the first game of the South Padre Island Invitational. The Spiders will play their second game of the tournament on Nov. 24 against Longwood University at 7 p.m. in the Robins Center.

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