Spiders hold on against UMass, advance to A-10 semis

ANNANDALE, N.J. — The University of Richmond men's basketball team held a 17-point lead at halftime, but a resilient University of Massachusetts cut the lead to three with 30 seconds left during the game. Still, the Spiders held on for a 77-72 victory Friday night in Atlantic City, N.J.

Richmond played one of its best halves all season during the first half of the game. The team hit nine of its 13 3-point attempts and raced out to a 38-21 lead going into the second half, which was not as kind to the Spiders.

The Minutemen outscored Richmond 51-39 during the final 20 minutes as the Spiders hit only two 3-pointers. Junior Anthony Gurley led the comeback bid for UMass by scoring 19 of his game-high 24 points during the second half.

After having its lead cut to 12, Richmond looked poised to regain control of the game after junior Kevin Smith had back-to-back dunks to put Richmond up 58-42 with just more than eight minutes remaining. But a young UMass team with only one scholarship senior worked during the next seven minutes to get Richmond's lead down to 10.

Junior Gary Correia hit a 3-pointer to bring the Musketeers within seven with 50 seconds remaining. A costly turnover by Richmond junior Kevin Anderson led to a 3-pointer by UMass senior Ricky Harris. During a span of four seconds, UMass scored six points and cut the Richmond lead to 71-67.

Anderson then hit a pair of free throws to give Richmond a six-point lead, but the Musketeers got those two points back on a layup. Richmond senior Ryan Butler was then fouled and he made both of his free throws to give Richmond a 75-69 lead with 21 seconds left.

Anderson, the Atlantic 10 Conference Player of the Year, fouled Harris during his desperation 3-point shot. Harris hit all three of his free throws and the Richmond lead was 75-72 with seven seconds remaining.

After a Richmond timeout, Smith took a long inbounds pass and raced down court for a game-sealing dunk. Smith finished with 14 points, eight of which came off of dunks.

Four other players scored in double figures for Richmond. Senior David Gonzalvez scored a team-high 15 points, but only four came after the half. Butler also scored 14 points and Anderson and junior Justin Harper added 13 points each.

The last time these two teams met, a Jan. 13 70-63 overtime victory for the Spiders, sophomore Darrius Garrett set a school and conference record with 14 blocks. This time around, he tallied only one block and the Spiders as a team blocked only two shots.

The win advances Richmond to the semifinals of the A-10 Tournament where it will face No. 24 Xavier University, the co-champions of the league and the tournament's No. 2 seed, at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. Richmond fell at Xavier 78-76 in double overtime on Feb. 28.

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