The Collegian
Friday, March 29, 2024

Spiders defeat Explorers, 78-76, behind 22 pts from D. Williams

Three-pointers dominated the first 38 minutes of Wednesday night's game between the University of Richmond and La Salle University; Spider forward Derrick Williams dominated the final two.

During that span, Williams scored five points and pulled down six offensive rebounds, four of which came during one possession. With the game tied at 73, he went up for a layup five separate times, getting his own rebound each time, until he was finally fouled on his sixth attempt. He made one of two free throws to give Richmond the one-point lead.

"I wasn't going to give up," Williams said. "I just kept thinking in mind, 'Just keep going after it, just keep going after it,' and eventually, I got fortunately."

On La Salle's next possession, guard Sam Mills buried a three-pointer from the top of the arc to give the Explorers a two-point lead with just over a minute to play. It was Mills's game-high fourth three-pointer made of the game. As a team, La Salle finished 10 of 17 from long range, 8 of 12 in the first half.

"They made so many shots in the first half, which they do because they're a good shooting team," Richmond coach Chris Mooney said. "That's the kind of thing that can collapse on you, but we were poised but also very aggressive."

Spider guard Cedrick Lindsay missed a short jumper on Richmond's ensuing possession, but Williams was able to grab another offensive rebound and make the layup to tie the game at 76 with under a minute to go.

After the Explorers turned the ball over, their seventh turnover of the second half, with 21 seconds left, Richmond set up to try to win the game. Lindsay drove down the lane and put up a layup that clanked off the rim with seven seconds left. With his left arm fully extended behind him, Williams grabbed the one-handed rebound and put the ball back up and in to give his team the lead with under six seconds remaining.

La Salle was unable to get a shot off in that time, as Richmond guard Darien Brothers stole the ball from La Salle's Ramon Galloway as he tried to draw a foul.

Williams finished with a career-high 22 points and 11 rebounds, eight offensive.

"I don't want to say I'm necessarily a go-to guy, but I'm like a main contributor," Williams said. "Everybody has an opportunity to score, and tonight was just my lucky night."

The Spiders went into the half down, 40-38, but had an 11-0 run towards the end of the half to get back into the game. Mooney said the stretch had been key for his team to build off of going into the locker room.

Besides Williams, two other Spiders, Brothers and Wayne Sparrow, had double-digit points with 13 and 10, respectively. Freshman Sparrow's career-high 10 points and five rebounds came off the bench on 4-of-5 shooting.

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"Just coming in and bringing energy," Sparrow said. "That's what I needed to do; that's what I'm here for."

With the win, Richmond (13-12) avoided dropping below .500 for the first time all season as it prepares next to face George Washington University on Saturday in the Robins Center. Tip off is set for 5 p.m.

Game Notes: Tyreek Duren was La Salle's high scorer, finishing with 17 points... The teams combined for 37 fouls and 44 free throws attempted... Richmond never led the entire first half, garnering its first lead on a three-pointer by Lindsay 30 seconds into the second half.

Contact staff writer David Weissman at david.weissman@richmond.edu

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