Richmond climbs the ladder

By Paul Casey Gotham

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — The wait is over for the Richmond Spiders.

Ten years and two second-place finishes behind them, the Spiders claimed the Atlantic 10’s top spot.

Kevin Anderson garnered tournament Most-Outstanding-Player honors, and the Richmond Spiders defeated the Dayton Flyers 67-54 to win the 2011 A10 championship at Boardwalk Hall.

“We came together at the right time,” Anderson remarked. “Our defense was spectacular. We were just one collective will at the right time.”

Without question Richmond possessed cohesion throughout the weekend, but it was Anderson who offered answers when the  Spiders needed them most.

Trailing by ten at half, Dayton came out of the locker room and rattled off five straight.

The Flyers ran their high-weave set on the first possession, and Paul Williams found an opening and drove the lane finishing with a layup.

After Kevin Smith’s errant pass went out of bounds, Chris Johnson curled off a screen finishing in the lane with contact. One free throw later, and the Flyers trailed 34-29.

Anderson responded coming off a ball screen with a pull up 3-pointer from the top of the key.

“He has a tremendous knack to make big plays without forcing the issue,” Richmond head coach, Chris Mooney commented. “I don’t know that I’ve ever seen it from a player before, but he has just an incredible ability to make the big play, and when you look back over his career, you have to try and make those big plays, but he has rarely or never made a horrendous play.”

Smith followed and made it a ten-point game with a pair from the foul line. Dan Geriot found Smith on a block-to-block pass, and the senior drew contact from Chris Wright.

Not to be denied, the Flyers made another run moments later.

Williams connected from long range when Devin Oliver alertly grabbed a loose ball under the basket and, while falling out-of-bounds, managed to fling the ball over the mass of bodies in the lane to Juwan Staten at the top of key. Staten kept the ball moving to his right, and Williams hit from the foul-line extended.

Sensing a shift in momentum, Dayton’s defense forced Richmond to start their offense further away from the basket, and Smith was forced into a long attempt with the shot-clock winding down.

Devin Searcy corralled the rebound and in one motion hit Williams with an outlet pass. Williams, quick in transition, knocked down a jumper.

Again, Anderson had the response when, going to his right off the dribble, he stopped and popped over Williams pushing the lead to eight at 46-38.

Anderson tallied ten points and dished out four assists as the Spiders grabbed a 22-12 lead 13 minutes into the game. He connected from the left corner late in the shot clock after the Flyers defense denied any entry passes despite a pair of ball reversals.

Moments later, the Flyers rotated to take away a baseline drive, and Anderson made a diagonal pass to Cedrick Lindsay who drilled a 25-footer for the 22-12 advantage.

The senior point guard put an exclamation point to the weekend’s effort. With less than a minute remaining, and the Dayton defense surrounding him, Anderson wheeled and spun his way through a series of defenders before he made what looked like a mistake and slipped and fell to the floor. Rather than turning over the ball Anderson, flat on his back, found Justin Harper on the block with a pass for an emphatic dunk.

“I’m glad I’ll never have to prepare for him again,” Dayton head coach Brian Gregory mused. “He’s great with the ball. You can very rarely take it away from him.”

Anderson finished with 23 points on 6-15 shooting from the field including 4-9 from behind the arc and 7-8 from the free throw line. The 23 points marked Anderson’s sixth game with 20 or more points in A10 conference tournament play – a new record.

Anderson added three assists.

Harper chipped in with 18 points, and Smith had 12. Despite scoring just one point Darius Garrett’s impact on the game was noticeable. The junior center pulled down nine rebounds and blocked three shots.

“When Darius is in the game, we go from being a fairly average rebounding team to an above average rebounding team, and good defensive team to a great defensive team,” Mooney explained.

The Spiders held their three opponents to a combined 35 percent from the field.

“I couldn’t be more proud of our players and the program,” said Richmond head coach, Chris Mooney. “To win a championship in a conference of this magnitude, we are extremely happy.”

The Spiders improve to 27-7 and move on to the NCAA tournament.

Johnson led the Flyers with 11. Staten accounted for 10 points.

The Flyers finished the regular season with a 7-9 record in conference play and were the third school to advance to the A10 finals with a losing record. St. Bonaventure was the last team advance with a record heavy on the wrong side of the ledger doing so in 1984.

Dayton falls to 22-13 overall.

Anderson was joined on the All-Tournament team by Harper, Dayton’s Wright and Johnson and Temple’s Lavoy Allen.

“When you get to the top of the ladder, it’s an unspeakable feeling,” Harper reflected. “I was at a loss for words.”