Richmond made what is likely to be their last appearance of the season today in a 69-54 loss to the first-seeded Dayton Flyers in the A-10 Quarterfinals that were held in Brooklyn, New York.
The Richmond squad that took the court today did not emulate the team that had played Dayton 10 days ago, which lost 84-85 in the Robins Stadium after getting a 10 point lead on the Flyers earlier in the game.
“It’s hard to believe that a week or so ago we scored 84 points (against the Flyers),” Spider coach Chris Mooney said in a press conference after the game. “They played a very good game, and we were just behind the whole time.”
Richmond’s defense, which had been so dominating in their second-round 70-55 tournament victory against Fordham on Thursday, struggled as Dayton set the tone in the game early on.
After seven minutes of playtime, the Spiders were trailing 26-7. In their first 10 shots from the field they made only one basket, even though they had been shooting 64 percent the day before against Fordham. The Flyers, on the other hand, looked comfortable as multiple of their players got on the scoreboard early in the first half.
The situation for the Spiders improved some after Mooney called a timeout in the middle of the first half to regroup the team. In the last eight minutes of the first half, the Spiders were able to create some offensive looks that led them on a 13-6 run to tackle the 20 point lead and bring it down to 13 before the half.
The second half was similar to the first, with the Flyers being able to maintain their lead throughout the remainder of the game.
Junior TJ Cline led the team with 25 points and 6 rebounds. Early on, Dayton made sure to keep numbers on Cline which made it difficult for him to break out and find the basket, but he capitalized on one-on-one opportunities and Richmond's offense adjusted to help get him the ball more.
Senior John Moran played 12 minutes in the second half to help the Spiders to some quick three-pointers. He came away with nine points of his own, second most of the day for Richmond.
There are four graduating seniors on the team in Terry Allen, Deion Taylor, Trey Davis, and John Moran. At this point, Mooney is uncertain whether or not the team will take part in other tournaments this spring.
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