Spiders seeded 12th in Southwest

 

Bubble teams across the nation watched the Atlantic 10 title game between Dayton and Richmond hoping that the Spiders, thought by many to be safely in the field by virtue of their win over Temple on Saturday, would win. Richmond did that, winning 67-54 and it's a good thing that Chris Mooney's team did take care of business. Richmond's reward in the field of 68: the 12-seed in the Southwest region, where they will take on Vanderbilt in Denver on Thursday afternoon. So maybe the Spiders were as safe as originally thought after all. Tournament MVP Kevin Anderson led the Spiders with 23 points and three assists and Justin Harper added 18 points, and for the sixth straight game Richmond held an opponent under 40% from the field.

"It's very difficult to stop them if they're out and running and that much more difficult if they're controlling the offensive backboard," said Mooney of the Flyers. "And we thought if we could control those, if we could do a solid job on those two areas, that our half-court defense could step up and defend them."

Richmond did just that, limiting Dayton to just two fast break and nine second-chance points on the day. The Spiders got off to a hot start from deep, shooting 8-for-15 in the first half and knocking down five in the first ten minutes of the game. A Francis Martel three with 9:51 remaining gave the Spiders a 17-12 lead, kickstarting a 15-2 run over the next five and a half minutes to take a 29-14 lead. The Flyers would fight to remain in the game, ultimately closing the deficit to ten by the end of the half. Richmond took advantage of seven Dayton turnovers, scoring 13 points.