Richmond freshman Brian Morris scored 15 points, including two three-pointers in the final four minutes, to lead the Spiders to a 61-50 come-from-behind victory over AU on Friday night in Richmond.
The Eagles led by as many as seven points in the second half, but Richmond went on a 12-2 run to take the lead. Down six points with a little over three minutes remaining, Arvydas Eitutavicius hit a three-pointer to give AU some hope, but that is the closest the Eagles would get. Morris hit a three-pointer with 45 seconds remaining to give Richmond a seven point lead, ending any chance of a comeback for AU.
One of the keys to the game for the Spiders was stopping senior guard Andre Ingram. Ingram, who is from Richmond, scored just three points on one-of-nine shooting. Although senior guard Eitutavicius scored 15 points off the bench, the Eagles struggled for much of the night offensively, shooting just 35 percent for the game, compared to 48 percent for Richmond.
The Spiders started out the game on a 23-9 run, led by freshman Dan Geriot, who scored nine points in the half and led all scorers with 18 in the game. However, the Eagles went on an 11-3 run over the final six minutes of the half to cut the deficit to 26-20 at the half.
AU continued their hot shooting coming out of halftime, going on a 13-2 run to take a six point lead. Richmond came back to tie the game with under 13 minutes left, but back to back three-pointers by sophomore Garrison Carr gave the Eagles their largest lead of the game.
The Eagles' next game is tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Bender Arena.
Hoops Notes: The Spiders shot 50 percent (9-18) from three-point range.The Eagles bench outscored the starters 29-21.The officiating crew failed to see that an AU shot was blocked out of bounds by a Richmond player, calling a jump ball instead. While AU kept possession there anyway, the next jump ball came with under a minute left, giving Richmond possession and allowing Morris to hit a back-breaking three-pointer... Starting guard Linas Lekavicius played just eight minutes in the game, and less than a minute in the second half.
