The University of Richmond Men’s Basketball team overcame an 11-point deficit but failed to complete the comeback, losing to the St. Joseph’s Hawks 72-70.
“We came back and competed to give ourselves a chance,” Richmond head coach Chris Mooney said.
Richmond struggled to begin the first half, as St. Joseph’s immediately went on a 5-0 run.
Later, the Spiders failed to score in a four-minute stretch, going 0-5 on field goals. Sophomore guard Nick Sherod broke the drought with three-pointers on consecutive possessions to cut the Hawks lead to 16-14 with 9:26 remaining in the period.
St. Joseph’s grabbed the lead right back, going on a 9-0 run to go up by 25-14 with 6:25 remaining after a layup by sophomore guard Nick Robinson. He led Hawk scorers in the half with 11 points.
Richmond finally gained some momentum towards the end of the half, led by Sherod and freshman forward Grant Golden. They scored 12 and 8 points in the first period respectively,
A three-pointer by Sherod and a layup by Golden on the following possession made it 42-40 with 15:35 remaining.
Golden made another layup a minute later to complete the Spider comeback and tie the game at 42.
He scored again at 11:05 to go up 46-44, the first Richmond lead of the night. The teams traded baskets for the next seven minutes and neither took a substantial lead.
The Hawks went up 62-56 with 4:11 remaining, prompting the Spiders to take a timeout. On the next possession, Sherod hit a three-pointer to attempt another Spider comeback.
The Spiders managed to cut the lead to 72-70 with eight seconds left and forced a turnover on the next Hawks possession. In a final buzzer-beater shot, Sherod missed a three-pointer.
“I feel we didn’t communicate as we did we first started coming back,” guard Khwan Fore said. “We all just did a poor job with communication”
Richmond struggled throughout game defensively handling Robinson guard Shavar Newkirk.
Sherod led Richmond scorers with 20 points and Golden contributed 16.
Richmond’s record fell to 9-19 and are 7-9 this season in the A-10. Mooney said his team remained optimistic for the rest of the season and the A-10 tournament.
“We have no lackadaisical player," Mooney said. "We’re a little young and don’t have not enough depth. But we’re confident and we’re going to play better on Wednesday.”