Just 48 hours after a tough road loss in double overtime, the Richmond Spiders played 40 minutes of dominant basketball in an 89-63 win over Davidson.
Richmond (10-8, 3-2) held one of the nation’s top offenses to a season-low 63 points, while the 26-point margin was the worst loss for Davidson (12-4, 3-2) and highest margin of victory for the Spiders this season.
Senior Kendall Anthony had a game for the ages, setting Richmond’s school record for most career threes with a 25-point effort. He tied a career high with seven threes, shooting 8-of-13 from the floor. He now has 246 career threes, passing Jonathan Baker’s 241.
Anthony was not alone as T.J. Cline scored a career-high 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting with three assists. Terry Allen tallied his second 20-point game of the season with 21 points and a career-high-tying five assists. It was the first time that two players had scored 20 points in a game this season, let alone three.
Alonzo Nelson-Ododa scored a season-high 15 points with four assists. ShawnDre’ Jones set a new career high with seven assists and just one turnover. He currently ranks second in the A-10 in assist-to-turnover ratio.
Richmond set new season highs in points (89), threes (14), assists (25) and field goals (31), shooting a blistering 57.4 percent from the field and 81.3 percent from the line.
The Spiders forced 12 turnovers, scoring 17 points off them, while only committing six. Richmond continues to rank in the top 10 in the country for fewest turnovers.
Not to be lost in the offensive outburst was Richmond’s defense against a Davidson team that leads the A-10 in nearly every offensive category.
Tyler Kalinoski was the Wildcats’ leading scorer with 20 points while Brian Sullivan 10. Jack Gibbs, who scored 32 against the Spiders in a meeting just two weeks ago, was held to just seven points on 2-of-10 shooting.
Celebration abounded in the Robins Center as a sold-out crowd of 7,201 worked the Spiders into a fever pitch from the opening tip as UR got off to a 7-0 run and never looked back.
After the Wildcats cut Richmond’s lead to 22-13 after a Jordan Barham jumper, the Spiders went on a 17-8 run during which Anthony hit two three-pointers to set the all-time record. Richmond hit seven threes in the first half to lead 42-27.
Richmond did not let up in the second half, pushing the lead to 31 points on a three from Anthony that nearly brought the house down. A block by reserve Joe Kirby in the final minute ended the game with perfect punctuation and the Spiders won, 89-63.
UR will have the week off before traveling to Dayton next weekend for a 7 p.m. tip.
NOTES: Prior to tip, Richmond announced the name of its live Spider mascot. The fans honored Hall of Fame coach Dick Tarrant by naming the team’s tarantula in his honor.
The game was tabbed as the First Capital Bank Coaches vs. Cancer game. The coaching staff wore tennis shoes as part of a national effort to raise awareness for cancer research.
QUOTES
Head Coach Chris Mooney
Of course, I’m extremely proud of my team. We’ve had some difficult losses most recently on Thursday night and I think George Washington had 50 points at the end of regulation of that game so I think for us to defend such a good Davidson team tonight with just one-day preparation, I’m really proud. I was really heartbroken for them Thursday night game because I thought we did everything we could to come back and put ourselves in a position to win the game and that didn’t happen but instead of getting down our guys had great energy, just a really great win. I’m very happy for the guys.
I think we defended extremely well. If you watch Davidson play against great teams- North Carolina, Virginia. They move and people are chasing them; they make shots, it’s really difficult to guard. I didn’t feel like they got very many easy shots. I thought everything was a little bit under duress. I think our defense kind of keyed everything and enabled us.
Kendall Anthony is the most self-motivated player that I have been around. In everything he does he holds himself to an extremely high standard. As a student, as a player, as a captain he just holds himself to a high standard. He is proud and I know Monday when we practice he’ll be the hardest working guy. He’s one of the few people that’s so much younger than you that you admire. He’s a special kid and just incredible.
Kendall Anthony:
I had confidence in myself. I’m blessed to able to break the record. It’s a blessing from God. I’ve always had confidence in myself that I can be a good player and I think I’ve had a pretty good career. My teammates found me in open spaces and I was able to knock them down tonight. I’m grateful to break the record and I give the credit to my teammates.
T.J. Cline
We knew it was going to be a sellout crowd. We knew there was going to be a lot of energy in the building. Yesterday at practice we had two segments. We really locked in on their stuff. We knew it mentally, we just had to do it physically out there and I think we executed perfectly. We got on a hot start- it helps when Kendall’s shooting like that. And we kept that intensity the whole game so it felt good.
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