16:32
basketball, USA‐Atlantic10Conference,Playoffs
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The sixth-seeded Richmond Spiders overcame a 15-point deficit in the second half of Saturday's Atlantic 10 Semifinal matchup to defeat the second-seeded Dayton Flyers 68-64. With the win, the Spiders earn their fourth trip to the A-10 title game, and their first since winning it all in 2011. Richmond (22-12), which snapped a nine-game losing streak to Dayton with Saturday's win, will face No. 1 seed Davidson in the A-10 Championship Final Sunday at 1 p.m. on CBS. "Obviously I'm extremely proud of our guys. Dayton is a great team with a lot of really good players and a great coach. It's a first-class program, so I'm really proud we were able to win this game and advance to the championship," said head coach Chris Mooney. "We've been down in this situation very often with second-half deficits, and that's not part of the plan, but it takes a lot of high character, good players, and great ability and belief [to overcome that]. I couldn't be prouder of our guys, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow." After trailing by as much as 15 points with 16:44 left in the second half, Dayton and Richmond exchanged baskets until the Spiders trailed 52-39 at 12:04. After that, Matt Grace sparked an 11-0 run for the Spiders spanning more than four minutes that pulled Richmond within two points of Dayton, 52-50, at 6:21. The Flyers went back up by four, but with 5:40 to go, Isaiah Wilson let one fly from beyond the arc to narrow the gap to just one point. With Richmond trailing 58-57 at 3:32, Tyler Burton hit a pair of free throws to give the Spiders their first lead of the day, and Richmond would not concede the lead again. Grace pulled down a crucial rebound on the defensive end to set himself up for a triple at 1:40 to push Richmond's lead to 62-59; he would end his day as one of four Spiders in double-figures with 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field alongside four rebounds. With his sixth rebound of the day, Grant Golden hit the 1,000 career rebounds mark to become the only active Division I player with 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in his career. Golden led all scorers in the game with 18 points and a team-high nine rebounds. Jacob Gilyard drilled a triple at 13:20 in the second half to break the Richmond program record for 3-pointers in a single season with 86, surpassing Rodney Rice's record of 85 set back in 1987-88. Gilyard posted 11 points with five assists and four steals in the win. Tyler Burton put up 16 points with eight boards and a block on the day, and he was a perfect 6-of-6 from the charity stripe. --UR--
2022-03-12
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