Richmond’s Kevin Anderson ripped the hearts out of the Charlotte 49ers on last year’s Senior Day, hitting the game-winning layup with just seconds remaining; Saturday afternoon, he did it again. Anderson hit a straight-away three-pointer with 5.3 seconds remaining to force the game into overtime and Richmond hit consecutive three-pointers to start overtime to send Charlotte to it’s sixth loss in seven games, 89-84.
With the win, Richmond wrapped up a first-round bye and will head to Atlantic City having won 10 of the last 11 games and will face an opponent TBA on Tuesday. The loss ended Charlotte’s chances of a first-round bye and after UMass defeated Rhode Island 69-67, it appears the Niners will face the Minutemen on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Halton Arena.
“It was a heck of a game and our guys played very well. Well enough to have chances to win,” 49er Head Coach Bobby Lutz said following the loss. “Give them (Richmond) credit, their guards were terrific, two first-team all-league guards. Those two guys really carried the load for them.”
Charlotte jumped out to an early lead 21-16 on an An’Juan Wilderness bucket and the two teams traded blows for the rest of the first half until Darien Brothers made a jumper at the conclusion of the half to put Richmond up 41-40.
The Spiders retained a marginal lead for most of the second half until Charlotte took the lead 65-64 on a Chris Braswell free throw with 2:32 left. After a Richmond miss, Braswell put the Niners up by three, 67-64 with an impressive one-handed put-back with 1:26 left. Richmond guard David Gonzalvez plagued the Niners all night long, scoring 29 points and pulling down 10 rebounds, and with 54.9 seconds left, he dialed up a long-distance bomb to tie the score at 67.
Charlotte had six free throw attempts over the next 50 seconds but converted on only three of them, giving Anderson the opportunity to tie the game. Charlotte Head Coach Bobby Lutz elected not to foul and Anderson drained a 25-footer to tie the game. The 49ers still had 5.3 seconds left, but couldn’t get off a shot before the buzzer.
Richmond opened the extra period with four consecutive three-point plays and never looked back on the Niners, winning 89-84. In a stretch spanning both the end of regulation and overtime, the Spiders scored seven consecutive three-point plays.
“I think we were just tired a little bit in overtime, I probably should have subbed, but I didn’t,” Lutz said. “Our defensive energy wasn’t great to start overtime and they took advantage of it.”
Gonzalvez’s 29 points led Richmond and Anderson added 24 more, as the Spiders ended a grueling week that saw them win games against Charlotte and Dayton, and lose a heartbreaker against Xavier in double overtime.
Braswell and Shamari Spears both scored 19 for the Niners and Braswell added 13 rebounds as Charlotte stumbles into the A-10 Tournament after sitting at the top of the standings just three weeks ago.
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