Dec. 2, 2006
Final Stats
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - The Richmond men's basketball team led by as many as 14 points in the second half, but a senior-laden Marist squad came fighting back for an 80-73 overtime victory Saturday night in the Robins Center.
Richmond freshman center Dan Geriot scored a team-high 18 points and redshirt freshman Ryan Butler tied a career high with 16 points as the Richmond attack went toe-to-toe with the Red Foxes (6-2), led by senior guards Jared Jordan (Hartford, Conn.) and Will Whittington (Kingwood, Tx.). Richmond senior Peter Thomas also reached double-figures with 10 points.
Jordan and fellow senior Whittington each scored 30 points in the game for Marist. All eight of Whittington's field goals were 3-pointers and again tied the school record held by himself, Joey O'Connor and Manny Otero. Jordan, who led the nation in assists last year at 8.5 per game, dished out eight Saturday night. The 6'2 guard also shared the rebounding team-high with senior center James Smith (Nyack, N.Y.) with seven.
"We were able to score inside, we were able to do a lot of things well that we wanted to do offensively," Richmond head coach Chris Mooney said. "Everything we did offensively was pretty positive and we didn't have many turnovers. We didn't shoot well but that's going to happen."
"That's a really difficult style to play against," Marist head coach Matt Brady said. "People make a big deal about their offense, but I think their defense is tremendous and they are going to really get better and better over this year and the years go forward. We're happy to get out of here with a win."
Jordan scored 13 of Marist's 24 first-half points, but the Spiders (3-3) went into the locker room with a three-point lead.
After Jordon knocked down a 3-pointer with 17:45 left in the second half, the Spiders went on an 8-0 run to push the score to 41-29. Richmond pushed that lead to 14 at 53-39 with 10:08 remaining, but Marist used a 19-4 run to get back within two with 2:22 left.
Richmond got the lead back to five on a 3-pointer by Butler with 1:05 remaining, but Jordan and Whittington would lead Marist's last-minute comeback.
Jordan made a lay-up to close the gap to three with 55 seconds left and then Whittington made a 3-pointer to tie the game with 11 seconds left. Richmond freshman David Gonzalvez got a shot off in the paint as time expired, but it rolled out.
Whittington made a 3-pointer on the first possession of overtime and Marist never looked back.
Geriot led Richmond in the extra period with four points but the Spiders could not stop Jordan and Whittington. The two guards combined to score 14 of their team's 17 overtime points.
Butler contributed 16 points in 38 minutes played and senior forward Peter Thomas added 10 points in 39 minutes on the floor.
Both teams kept control of the ball on offense, committing a combined 23 turnovers.
Marist shot 41.8 percent (23-55) for the game, while Richmond tossed in 40.4 percent (23-57). The Red Foxes connected on 12 of 34 3-point attempts for 35.3 percent, while the Spiders made just five of 22 long-range attempts (22.7 percent). Perhaps the most encouraging number came from the free throw line where Marist made 22 of 29 attempts (75.9 percent), while Richmond made 68.8 percent (22-32).
Marist will now turn its attention to its home opener against Canisius Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the McCann Center. The contest will be the back half of a doubleheader with the Marist women, who face Loyola at 5 p.m. Season, single-game and group tickets are on sale now at GoRedFoxes.com and the McCann Center ticket office. Other ticket inquiries may be directed to 845-575-3553. All Marist faculty and staff receive a 20% discount on men's and women's basketball season tickets!
