March 7, 2009

Box Score

RICHMOND, Va. - The Xavier University men’s basketball team ran into a hot-shooting Richmond squad on Saturday, falling to the Spiders 80-75 in the regular season finale. Labeled a “one-man wrecking crew” by XU head coach Sean Miller, Richmond’s Kevin Anderson scored 29 points to fuel the upset.

Anderson played all 40 minutes without a turnover while going 10-of-20 from the field and 9-of-10 from the charity stripe. The sophomore point guard also pulled down four rebounds and recorded two steals. Justin Harper added 20 points for the Spiders, who shot 50.9 percent from the field for the game.

Senior B.J. Raymond was one rebound shy of a double-double for the Musketeers, tallying team highs with 17 points and nine rebounds. Junior Derrick Brown added 16 points for XU, hitting 6-of-11 from the field and knocking down all four of his free throws.

Flashing his passing ability throughout the game, freshman Terrell Holloway had a game-high five assists to go along with nine points. Junior Jason Love gave the Musketeers a third scorer in double figures, hitting all four shots from the field and a pair of free throws on his way to 10 points.

Richmond built a nine-point lead with 17:50 to play when David Gonzalvez hit a three-pointer, but the Musketeers whittled the margin down to one point over the next five minutes. Brown hit a jumper over a defender with 12:43 on the clock that made it 54-53 in favor of the Spiders.

Slowly building its advantage over the next eight minutes, Richmond took a nine-point with four minutes to play when Jarhon Giddings converted a layup off an offensive rebound to put the Spiders in front, 75-66. That was the home team’s last field goal of the game, but it proved to be enough as Richmond hit its free throws down the stretch to seal the win.

A scorching 59.3 field goal percentage in the first half allowed Richmond to take a 47-37 lead into the break. Three Spiders reached double figures in scoring through the first 20 minutes, led by Justin Harper and Kevin Anderson, who each tallied 12 points before intermission.

XU scored the first four points of the game to grab the early lead, but Jarhon Giddings hit a three-pointer with 17:40 on the clock to cap a 7-0 run to put the Spiders in front, where they stayed for the remainder of the half.

After a layup by Brown with 5:18 to play cut the deficit to three, 32-29, Richmond scored the next seven points to push its lead to double digits at the 4:06 mark. The advantage hovered around 10 for the remainder of the half until C.J. Anderson converted on a layup with one minute left in the half to make it a six-point game. Kevin Anderson pushed the margin back to eight on the Spiders’ final possession with a pair of free throws.