Richmond surrendered an 18-point lead in the second half and lost to Miami in the NIT quarterfinal, ending the Spiders' season and Kendall Anthony's career at Richmond.
Early in the second half though, that outcome seemed highly improbable. Richmond scored the first six points of the half and built an 18-point lead with less than 17 minutes left. The Robins Center was loud, so loud that Miami coach Jim Larrañaga said it was comparable to Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium, a notoriously rowdy venue. Not a single Richmond fan would've believed Miami would win 63-61 and steal Richmond's berth in the NIT Final Four.
Perhaps the only person in the arena that did believe that narrative was Jim Larrañaga. Even his players seemed to believe the game was out of reach.
With 13 minutes left, the Spiders still led by 15 points, and the Richmond crowd was energized. Miami's Ja'Quan Newton began looking around at the crowd with a discouraged look, as if he were thinking, "How do we overcome this?"
His coach had the answer. Shortly after concern appeared on Newton's face, Miami began playing a press defense. At that point, the whole game changed.
Richmond appeared off-guard when Miami began to press, despite Richmond coach Chris Mooney's assertion that his team wasn't rattled. Perhaps he was right, but even so, the Hurricanes scored 35 points in the final 12 minutes of play, and Richmond scored just 18.
"It helped us pick up the pace defensively," Miami guard Sheldon McClellan said. "We had to pick a defense where we could get after it and get some energy going."
The defensive switch was certainly effective. Although Anthony scored nine of his 11 points in the second half, most of his teammates struggled to follow his lead. Terry Allen did play well, scoring a game-high 18 points and grabbing 11 rebounds, as did TJ Cline, who scored 17. But the Spiders needed more scoring from the rest of the team late in the game.
Perhaps the biggest mismatch for Richmond in the second half was offensive rebounding. Miami, whose rebounding was led by 7-footer Tonye Jekiri, had 12 offensive rebounds in the second half alone. Those converted into 12 second-chance points.
Richmond had just two offensive rebounds in the second half, and Mooney noted that as a major factor in the loss. "I thought the two biggest stats would be Miami's offensive rebound numbers, which were far too big for us to overcome," Mooney said. "And our 3-point shooting, which is better."
Much of Mooney's focus after the game revolved around the game being Anthony's last. He said the loss was "exacerbated by not being able to coach Kendall again."
Anthony was not made available for comment after the game.
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Contact Sports Editor Charlie Broaddus at charlie.broaddus@richmond.edu
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