The College of Charleston Cougars
The end of the season
Kevin Anderson
nailed a jumper with nine seconds remaining to lift the Richmond
Spiders to a thrilling 74-72 victory over the College of Charleston
Cougars in the quarterfinal round of the College Basketball
Invitational before 2,541 at Robbins Center on Monday.Anderson posted
21
points and five assists for Richmond, which will play in the semifinal
round on Wednesday. David Gonzalvez added 15 points for the Spiders,
who got 10 points from Ryan Butler.Charleston managed
to whittle a 13-point down to two, but that was as close as the Cougars
got. Charleston finished its season at 27-9 while Richmond is now
20-15.Jermaine Johnson (Los Angeles, Calif.) led Charleston with
15 points and seven rebounds, while Dustin Scott (Jamestown, S.C.)
scored 14 points and had nine rebounds.A layup by Tony White, Jr.
(Knoxville, Tenn.) with 15:03 remaining cut Richmond's lead to
just
43-42, but Richmond embarked on a 16-4 run over the next five minutes
and built its largest margin of the game at 59-46. Anderson and
Gonzalvez each scored five in the spurt.The Bobby Cremins-led
Cougars would not go quietly and trimmed the lead to just two with 42
seconds left thanks to back-to-back baskets from Scott and a
put-back
layup from White.
The ball in his hands and his team
up 72-70, Anderson milked the clock down to the final seconds before
driving to the near-side elbow and drilling his patented floater in
traffic for the decisive basket with 9.3 on the clock.Richmond called
timeout and Johnson tipped in his own miss on the ensuing possession
with three seconds left, Charleston called timeout then fouled
Anderson. The sophomore missed the front-end of the 1-and-1, leaving
the Cougars only a desperation heave at the buzzer that fell short.The
fast-paced game featured just 21 total fouls and
12 combined free throws attempts, while each team turned the ball over
just nine times.Richmond jumped out of the gate quickly and opened a
six-point lead at 18-12 when Francis Cedric Martel slammed an alley-op
pass from Anderson. Another dunk by Kevin Smith brought the Robins
Center crowd to its feet and put Richmond up 30-23 with 5:56 left in
the first.CofC would cut the lead to 33-31, but the Spiders closed the
half with a 6-2 run and took a 39-33 lead into the break.