Second-half surge sends Xavier past Richmond, 85-62

Senior forward Kevin Smith's contributions for the University of Richmond are rarely visible by looking at the stat sheet. What he does bring to the team is an energy to the floor that no other Spider does.

So when Smith picked up his third and fourth personal fouls — the latter coming as a technical foul for saying something to a referee — with 17:29 left in the second half and was forced to sit out the next few minutes, Richmond was at a loss to slow Xavier University when it went on a 12-2 run.

"When we are at our best, Kevin Smith is involved in all of these little plays," Richmond coach Chris Mooney said. "Offensively, defensively, hustle plays and it really hurt that he went out of the game with the fourth foul."

That run by the Musketeers turned a two-point lead into a 12-point lead for them and Richmond was never able to get back into the game.

Xavier pulled away during the second half to win 85-62 Saturday afternoon in front of 8,514 at the Robins Center in a match-up of two of the top three teams in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

Smith has improved his production the last three games before foul trouble limited him on Saturday. He missed the first three games this year while recovering from a foot injury and did not start a game until junior Francis-Cedric Martel injured his ankle against Rhode Island and was forced to miss the George Washington game.

Smith's absence on Saturday not only affected his stat line (one point, two rebounds and one assist) but also shortened Mooney's bench. Martel was forced into a greater role since being injured and Mooney had to play with three guards (including Darien Brothers, who was also in foul trouble for much of the second half) on the floor at the same time.

The Musketeers were able to exploit Richmond's smaller lineup as forward Jamel McLean and center Kenny Frease combined to score 26 points and grab 18 rebounds. In the second half alone, the starting duo combined for 10 rebounds (five of them offensive) as the Musketeers outrebounded the Spiders 23 to 12 that half.

But it was not only down in the post that gave Richmond defensive troubles. Junior guard Tu Holloway scored a career-high 33 points and did most of his damage while the Musketeers built up its second-half lead. Using quickness similar to that of Richmond's Kevin Anderson, Holloway was able to shake his defenders to get an open jumper or drive to the basket for either a layup or get fouled.

Most of Holloway's scoring was done by driving past his defender and getting fouled on his shot. He attempted 17 free throws and made all of them, which was a common theme for Xavier as it went 29-for-30 from the line on Saturday.

Xavier's 30 attempts were in stark comparison to Richmond's 16 attempts. Foul shooting has been a problem for the Spiders all year and it continued to plague them as they made 10 of their shots for a 62.5 percent mark.

"I wish we had been more aggressive to draw more fouls," Mooney said. "That's the most honest way I can say it."

Perhaps Holloway's three most important free throws came with 1.3 seconds left during the first half. After a turnover by Richmond senior Justin Harper, Holloway got Brothers in the air on a pump fake with about two seconds left in the half. With Brothers still in the air, Holloway went up for his shot and although it was missed, Brothers was called for the foul. Holloway made all three of the free throws to give Xavier a five-point lead.

There was still 1.3 seconds left in the half at that time and things got much worse for the Spiders. After Mooney drew up a play during a timeout, no Spider could get open and Martel forced a pass that went out of bounds without any player touching it. The Musketeers got one last chance to score to end the half and converted on a heads-up play by Holloway.

Holloway was inbounding the ball with senior center Dan Geriot guarding the pass. Geriot had his back to Holloway and Holloway threw the ball off of Geriot's back, caught it and went up for a layup right before the buzzer went off. The basket was good and Xavier went into the break with a 36-29 lead.

"It wasn't drawn up," Xavier coach Chris Mack said. "I'd love to take credit for it. I had 14 ideas in a 30-second timeout and he went with his own.

"He's a really high-IQ basketball player and he recognized the man guarding him had his back to him and helping on cutters. Fortunately, 1.3 seconds is enough time to bump it off his back and catch it and shoot."

Richmond was able to recover from that momentum shift and cut Xavier's lead to two early during the second half, but it still set the tone for the second half of Xavier making all the necessary plays to pull away from Richmond.

"It was basically three big letdowns right in a row and kind of took our momentum away," Geriot said.

Xavier used a zone defense against Richmond which forced the Spiders to take more than half of its shots from 3-point territory. Richmond made 10 of 30 3-pointers for the game, including 4-for-16 during the second half. The Spiders came into the game shooting nearly 42 percent on 3-pointers.

Xavier is not known for playing a zone defense, but Mack started to prepare his team to play it while scouting Richmond during its win at the University of Dayton on Tuesday.

"If they are going to shoot 3s, I at least want to know where they are on the floor," Mack said he thought while watching that game.

Mack said that his original plan was to show some zone defense but not play it nearly exclusively. But Geriot made two 3-pointers during the first five minutes of the game and Mack decided to go to it early and it provided the desired results.

Not only was it effective at stopping Geriot, senior Justin Harper also struggled with the length of Xavier's players in the zone. He scored seven points early during the first half but did not score for the final 13:54 of the first half and it took another minute into the second half before Harper scored again. He did end with a team-high 20 points.

When Xavier went up by 10 after a pair of free throws by Holloway with 12:48 left in the game, it was only the second time this year that Richmond has trailed by double digits. The first was on Dec. 18 against Georgia Tech in a game the Spiders lost in The Bahamas.

Xavier maintained its spot atop the A-10 with a perfect 7-0 record in conference play, a half game ahead of 6-0 Duquesne University. Regardless of what happens the rest of the weekend, the Spiders will still remain tied for second with a 5-2 conference record and 16-6 overall.

Richmond looks to rebound on Wednesday with a 7 p.m. game at the Robins Center with a game against Saint Joseph's University. SJU is winless so far this year in the A10 with a 0-6 record.

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