Richmond Edges JMU 83-82 in OT

Coach Matt Brady thought his James Madison basketball team would have to perform at its highest level to have a chance to beat Richmond. The Dukes may have played their best game of the young season on Saturday, and gave themselves that chance.

 

The Spiders were just an itsy bit better.

 

The teams were tied at halftime and at the end of regulation, but a free-throw by Kendall Anthony with 4.7 seconds remaining in overtime proved to be the difference as Richmond inched past Madison 83-82 in front of a season-high crowd of 4,351 at the Convocation Center.

 

"I just thought they were a little bit better than us and made some key plays," Brady said. "We missed some free throws, we committed some fouls that we probably shouldn't have committed, and you just can't do that against good teams."

 

JMU(3-6) trailed by two points with 23 seconds left in OT, when point guard Devon Moore drew a foul. He made only the first of two shots but quickly stole the rebound and was fouled again. He made one of two again, tying the score at 82-apiece.

 

On Richmond's possession, Anthony, a 5-foot-8 guard, made a move to the hoop and an official whistled JMU's A.J. Davis for a foul. Anthony missed his first free-throw but made his second to put UR (8-2) on top by a point. JMU had 4.7 seconds remaining to go the length of the floor and score.

 

Moore rushed the ball upcourt and delivered a pass to Davis on the wing. Davis, who had made two 3-pointers in the game, barely got his 3-point shot off in time, but it hit the rim and bounced away.

 

Despite scoring 19 points and adding five rebounds, five assists and four steals, Moore, who put his jersey over his head after the final buzzer, blamed himself for the Dukes' loss

 

"I put definitely that loss on me," the senior point guard said. "… At the end of the game, I got the last two free throws, I missed two out of the last three. That's definitely not good. As a point guard, you have to make free throws. My team played tremendously. … We was able to win the game and I wasn't necessarily able to seal it."

 

Moore, who exceeded 1,000 career points in the game, said he probably should have attempted the final shot, but wasn't upset with the look the Dukes got.

 

After a slow start to the season and then wins against two poor opponents, JMU may have grown up a bit by playing the Spiders so tight. It was a well-played game with 13 ties and 13 lead changes, and the Dukes just happened to be on the wrong side of the last one.

 

"I thought it was a great college basketball game," UR coach Chris Mooney said. "Great plays, great shots made by both teams. Just a fun game to watch and be a part of. ... I think James Madison is a really good teams. I think they're going to win a lot of games. I thought how hard they played was impressive."

 

Both teams shot extraordinarily well, but it wasn't due to a lack of defensive pressure. Richmond made 57.8 percent of its field goal attempts and an absurd 11 of their 17 3-pointers (64.7 percent). JMU , meanwhile, shot 52.1 percent from the field and made 8 of 13 treys (61.5 percent). 

 

Senior forward Andrey Semenov scored 18 points on 6-of-7 shooting (3-for-3 from deep) but fouled out at the end of regulation, leaving the Dukes without one of their best two-way players for overtime. 

 

With JMU leading by two points and the clock winding down in the second half, point guard Cedrick Lindsay tried to drive past Semenov, who was guarding Lindsay after a switch. Semenov committed his fifth foul with three seconds left, and Lindsay made both of his free throws to tie the game. Moore missed a running, 35-foot heave at the end of the half, forcing OT.

 

Lindsay didn't score a point in the first half, but took over the game down the stretch, finishing with 13 points and 11 assists.

 

"I just let the game come to me a little bit," the junior said. "…After we broke the press, they were really scrambling to find everybody. I got a couple open looks earlier in the game, kind of missed. But my teammates did a great job of finding me late in the game, and shots went in for me."

 

JMU's press was effective, and Mooney said the Dukes' "athleticism and length bothered us."

 

Richmond was effective in the halfcourt when it played through 6-6, 285-pound forward Derrick Williams, who outscored the similarly-built Dukes big man Rayshawn Goins 17-4 and outrebounded Goins 7-0. The Dukes had to pay extra attention to Williams, often opening up windows for the Spiders' deadeye outside shooters.

 

"It's hard when you got a team like that where four out of five people can shoot 3s, and on top of that, they're running a back-door, Princeton-type offense," Moore said. "You got to try to guard the lane and guard 3s, and that's tremendously hard."

 

The Dukes have a week off for finals before hosting UNC-Greensboro next Sunday.