Richmond defeats Morehead St. to advance to Sweet 16

DENVER — The selection committee may not have wanted them in the tournament, but the University of Richmond Spiders are headed to the Sweet 16.

After receiving a 12 seed despite winning the Atlantic 10 Conference title and automatic berth, there were questions about whether the Spiders would have made the tournament had it lost the A-10 title game. Richmond, which admittedly felt slighted by the low-seeding, played like it as it defeated No. 5 Vanderbilt University in the second round and then No. 13 Morehead State, 65-48, to get to San Antonio.

The last time Richmond advanced this far was in 1988 and Richmond coach Chris Mooney was 15-years-old at the time.

Although the players made history, the celebration on the court after the game was tame. Players hugged each other but there were no jumping celebrations, no dog piles like so many lower-seeded teams do after advancing to the Sweet 16. It was even more subdued than the celebration after Richmond's upset of Vanderbilt.

"I think more than anything, if we had won on a buzzer-beater, I think we would have been flying around on the court," Mooney said. "I that because the margin was so large by the end of the game that would have seemed a little trite. I was proud about how we both games and went about our business."

To get the two wins and in Denver, Richmond had to shut down a pair of dominate centers, something that has given it trouble throughout the year. Thursday, it was Festus Ezeli and Saturday it was senior Kenneth Faried.

"Ezeli kind of got his a little bit but I think we wore him down," senior center Dan Geriot said. "Against Faried, that was our focus and we were able to limit him as much as we could with him probably being the greatest rebounder in the history of college basketball. It took a lot but we were able to double him and put some indecisiveness in him."

The Eagles made it a priority to get the ball to Faried early, but whenever he would get the ball, he was quickly double-teamed. Although Faried got a double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds, he was held below his season average in both categories and never exerted any dominance. The double-double was the 86th of his career, leaving him one shy of tying former Wake Forest forward Tim Duncan for most all time.

Things got so bad for Faried that he was called for a five-second violation during the first half after being trapped by senior Justin Harper and junior Darrius Garrett.

For the Spiders, it was their bigs who helped with the scoring. Geriot had his first double-digit scoring game since early March and finished with 13 points. Harper led Richmond with 19 points on 9-of-18 shooting — a big change from Thursday's game when Harper went 4 for 12 and scored 13 points.

But the big story was Richmond's defense. Besides keeping Faried from reaching his season averages, it also held Morehead's Demonte Harper, who averages 15.8 points per game, to 2-of-15 shooting to total four points and Terrance Hill, who shot Morehead State back into the game against Louisville to 2-of-7 shooting.

"I don't think they took bad shots," Morehead State coach Donnie Tyndall said. "But that's how Richmond plays. They make you take tough shots over the top of their defense."

The strong defense was also present in Atlantic City, N.J. as well, which helped the Spiders to claim their first A-10 title. They held their opponents to 51 point in the three games and Saturday held Morehead State to its third-lowest scoring total of the season.

Richmond has also improved its rebounding since making the A-10 tournament. Despite Morehead having a prolific rebounder in Faried and holding a nine point edge in rebounds on average — good for fifth-best in the nation — Richmond was able to get 32 rebounds, compared to the 34 from Morehead State.

"We kept [Faried] off the glass early which was big," Geriot said. "I think it kind of messes up his mind a little bit to know that nothing is going to come easy."

The strong rebounding allowed for Richmond to limit Morehead State's offensive rebounds and putbacks, something that is needed for Morehead to win. One game after getting 19 second-chance points in its upset of No. 4 Louisville, Morehead was able to get 15 of those points, which was five less than Richmond.

By controlling the rebounding, Richmond was able to jump out to an early lead and never let Morehead State get ahead. Richmond led by seven at the half and extended that lead to as many as 17 late in the game.

Morehead State was able to pull within six after Sam Goodman hit one of two free-throws. But Richmond responded with a 6-0 run as Harper hit three-straight shots to give Richmond control of the game again.

Early in the second half, senior Kevin Anderson hit a running bank shot in the lane to make the score 35-26. More importantly, it put Anderson into second place on Richmond's all-time scoring list. Anderson went on to score 14 points in all.

It was the ninth meeting all-time between a 12-seed and 13-seed, and the higher-seeded team has now won eight of the meetings.

Richmond will play No. 1 Kansas in San Antonio on Friday, March 25. The game is slated to start at 7:27 p.m. EST.

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