2009-2010 Richmond Spiders Basketball: Richmond vs Florida

For three straight years, the Richmond Spiders have beaten a ranked opponent. Coach Chris Mooney can only hope that his team's latest and greatest conquest will lead to the NCAA Tournament.

A stack of impressive non-conference wins dotted Richmond's resume heading into the second game of the Orange Bowl Basketball Classic at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Fla. Richmond had already taken down Mississippi State, a team on the verge of cracking the top 25; the Missouri team that reached the Elite Eight last year; and the Old Dominion squad that stunned Georgetown on Saturday. Those meaningful triumphs lent substance to the Spiders' dossier, but a win over the 13th-ranked Gators - who were dominating the college basketball world three seasons ago - would give even more ballast to this Atlantic 10 program's hopes of cracking the field of 65 in three months.

Evidently, the good ship Richmond is sailing much more smoothly, while Florida's boat has run aground, stopped by the defense of the sticky, stinging Spiders.

Defense did the deed for the A-10 underdog on Saturday. Despite scoring just 19 points in the game's first 19 minutes, Richmond stayed close to Florida - yes, the same Florida team that knocked off mighty Michigan State just a few weeks ago, and also beat back a talented Florida State squad just before Thanksgiving. The Spiders prevented the Gators from pounding the ball into the paint, and kept coach Billy Donovan's bunch confined to the perimeter. Supreme effort, mixed with a willingness to let Florida win the game from the 3-point arc, turned into the perfect approach for Mooney and his assistant coaches.

The Gators totaled only 21 points in the second half in the face of the Spiders' cleverly-woven web. Florida shot 7 for 27 (26 percent) from the field, including 1 for 9 from 3-point range. UF's starting guards Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton shot a combined 5 for 23, including 2 for 11 from 3-point range. Richmond turned its opponent into a passive, jump-shooting team, and when Florida's long bombs regularly missed the mark, Donovan had no answers from his place on the Gators' bench. A 20-5 Richmond run turned an eight-point halftime deficit into a 44-37 lead for the Spiders. Florida retook the lead at 49-48 with 2:33 left, but when Spider sniper David Gonzalvez (16 points on the evening) popped in a 3-pointer to give the visitors a 52-49 lead with 1:36 remaining, Mooney's men had turned the corner.

Richmond allowed just one more basket to the Gators in the final 96 seconds, and that was a triple by Walker with only three seconds left, a three that occurred, it should be said, only after the Spiders had carved out a two-possession lead at 54-50. When forward Kevin Anderson calmly drained two free throws with one second left to provide the game's final margin, Richmond notched the biggest win of the past three years.

Now comes the hard part for Chris Mooney and Co.: consolidating momentum and thereby ensuring that this one good result doesn't turn out to be an aberration. The last two years of upset wins have not been complemented by consistency against lower-tier opponents. If the Spiders have learned their lessons well, they'll follow this foiling of Florida with conference conquests in the Atlantic 10 portion of a very promising campaign.

Atlantic 10 Conference Basketball Fans

Richmond vs Florida Basketball Recap