By PAUL GOTHAM
BROOKLYN — T.J. Cline and ShawnDre’ Jones combined for six points during a decisive second-half run as the Richmond Spiders defeated Fordham, 70-55 in second round action in the Atlantic 10 Championship, Thursday afternoon.
After watching a 16-point halftime advantage dwindle to three, Richmond responded with ten straight. Cline converted a rebound and putback, and Jones connected four times from the free throw line as UR took a 13-point advantage at 61-48 and held on to defeat the Rams.
“We knew our season was on the line and we’ve got to lay it all on the court,” Cline said. “There was nothing to save, nothing like that, so we knew this is what we’ve going to do to win, this is what we’ve got to do to advance.”
The pair combined for 34 of Richmond’s points. Cline hitting 8-of-15, and Jones going 6-of-15 from the floor.
But this effort was more about Richmond’s defense, which has struggled at times this year, than its offense. The Spiders held Fordham more than 15 points under the season average on 38.9 percent shooting (21-54) including 19 percent (4-21) from long range.
“I would just say we was very tight,” Jones said. “If a guy did beat a guy, we would come over and help our guys, and we tried to box out a little bit more. They got a lot of rebounds the first four minutes (of the second half), but we tried our best after that point to box out.
“I would just say our effort. We had a few balls we tried to dive on and stuff like that, a few steals.”
Richmond converted 14 Fordham turnovers into a 21-6 advantage in points off mishandles. The Spiders finished with 14 assists on 26 made field goals and nine turnovers against a Fordham club forcing nearly 16 mishandles a game.
“Turnovers is definitely not accepted at Richmond,” Jones stated. “That’s in our mind, like to just take care of the ball, and just probably put a big emphasis on ball security. We do a lot of segments (in practice) where it’s six guys, so that helps prepare us for the game.”
Jones capped a 20-8 first-half run in which the Spiders scored on eight straight possessions. The junior guard found Deion Taylor cutting baseline with an alley oop for two. Next possession, Julius Johnson connected from behind the arc, and UR led 31-16.
“This is something we worked on in practice,” Cline explained. “This is something we worked on trying to get going for the whole season. Like I said, our backs were against the wall. They jumped off to a 4-0 start and we came back hard. I think everybody was so locked in in that first half, especially on defense, that it translated over to offense.”
A-10 Rookie of the Year Joseph Chartouny and Ryan Rhoomes combined for 14 points as Fordham made it a one-possession game early in the second half. Chartouny hit from behind the arc and then fed Rhoomes for two inside. After Chartouny scored on a drive from the free throw line, Rhoomes completed back-to-back three-point plays. Chartouny fed David Pekarek for three and converted one of two free throws, and Fordham trailed 42-39.
“We talked about at halftime what adjustments they might make,” Richmond head coach Chris Mooney said. “They did a few things technically on offense. Jeff (Fordham coach Neubauer) is great at that. But defensively the only thing is they just turned up that much more pressure.
“They were taking a couple of risks, but it was very disruptive, and I think that for us, I think we controlled the game in the first half in a really nice way. But they were much more disruptive at both ends in the second half.”
Antwoine Anderson scored three straight to make it 51-48 game with 5:03 to go, but Richmond responded with 10 in a row to put the game out of reach.
Chartouny finished with a game-high 19 for Fordham. Rhoomes added 18 with a game-high 14 rebounds.
Allen and Khwan Fore scored 10 apiece for Richmond.
The Spiders advance to No. 1 seed Dayton in Friday’s quarter-final round.
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