Richmond heads to Atlantic City with win over Duquesne

Kevin Anderson's debut in the Robins Center four years ago was impressive for a freshman as he scored four points, had four assists and four rebounds. But compared to his finale in the Robins Center Saturday afternoon, it was nothing special.

Playing in his last home game, Anderson and fellow senior Justin Harper (who was held scoreless in three minutes of action in his home debut four years ago against the University of Maine) scored 16 points apiece as the University of Richmond defeated Duquesne University, 68-56, Saturday afternoon to bring Richmond's regular season to a close.

Richmond secured the third seed in the Atlantic 10 Tournament with Wednesday's 69-54 victory at Saint Joseph's and will not play again until next Friday in Atlantic City, N.J. Richmond ended its year 24-7 and 13-3 in the A-10, an identical record to last year's team that lost in the A-10 finals to Temple and received an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament.

Despite the similarities to last year's team, Richmond coach Chris Mooney was not ready to say that his team had done enough to lock down a spot in this year's tournament.

"I don't think any team outside of the top 20 would be comfortable," Mooney said. "I think if the selection show was tonight, we'd be in. But so many things can change in the conference tournaments with upsets and what not."

If the Spiders can play in Atlantic City like they did Saturday, they should have no trouble receiving an at-large and would have a good chance of winning the A-10 title. Duquesne came into the Robins Center averaging 78 points per game which was 18th-best in the nation but Richmond held Duquesne to a season-low 32.8 percent shooting and nearly a season-low in points.

A quick glance at the final stats would suggest that the Dukes would have been in a good position to win as they forced 19 Spider turnovers, nearly double of the Spiders' average. But five of those came by the second media timeout as the game was played at a faster pace which benefited the Dukes.

The combination of Richmond turnovers and Duquesne pushing the ball up the court gave Duquesne a seven-point lead early during the first half. But a three-pointer by junior Francis-Cedric Martel started a 12-3 Richmond run as it passed the ball better and forced Duquesne to play a half-court game.

"I think we had to see what they were doing," Anderson said. "They came out real aggressive in the passing lanes. It surprised us more than we thought. We knew they were going to be aggressive in the passing lane but they were like overly-aggressive."

The slow-down pace was key for Richmond to prevent Duquesne from scoring at its usual mark. When Duquesne was unable to get a transition layup, it usually took a forced three-point shot and struggled to make most of them. It ended the game shooting 3 of 22 on three-pointers.

"They get a lot of their three-point opportunities on transition and [Mooney] emphasized on us getting back on our transition defense," senior Kevin Smith said.

Richmond did not get a lot of help from the three-point range either and instead was more aggressive in its drive to the basket which led to 30 foul shots attempted. The more aggressive offense also put Duquesne in foul trouble as three Duquesne starters ended with four personal fouls and one fouled out of the game.

Almost as surprising as Richmond's 30 free-throw attempts, which was two away from tying its season high, was that Richmond outrebounded Duquesne by 11. Richmond grabbed 35 defensive rebounds, which was two more than Duquesne's offensive and defensive rebound total.

"That's not a number we see as often as we'd love to," Mooney said. "But, we did say this was a team I thought this was a game we could rebound well against."

Richmond does not find out who it will play in the second round of the A-10 Tournament until Tuesday night. Regardless of the opponent, Richmond's first game will be at 9 p.m. on Friday.

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