Darien Brothers Lights Up ODU with 38 Points for Richmond

College Hoops Player of the Day for Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Darien Brothers, a 6'3" Richmond guard averaging less than 10 points per game, scored 12 of his career high 38 points in overtime to lead the Spiders to a 90-82 victory over Old Dominion.

Brothers spent most of the night torching the Monarchs from beyond the 3-point line, where he was 7-for-11. He went 9-for-15 overall and added 14 of 15 free throws.

Richmond, out of the Atlantic-10 conference, is now 7-5, but should be considered one of the contenders in their conference, which they won last season, taking down Dayton in the final of the A-10 tourney, 67-54, and closing out their season with nine straight wins (two in the NCAA tourney) before losing to Kansas, 77-57, in the Sweet 16 round.

The Spiders take their game out to the West coast next, to battle UCLA in what should prove an interesting road test for Richmond and a gut check for the Bruins, on Friday, December 23. The A-10 regular season opener for the Spiders is on January 4, at the Charlotte.

Round of 32 Results and Recaps - Saturday Games

East

Kentucky 71 West Virginia 63 - Brandon Knight scored a game-high 30 points to lead the Wildcats into the Sweet 16. Kentucky's next task will likely be against the Ohio State Buckeyes, who face George Mason on Sunday for the right to advance.
West

San Diego St. 71 Temple 64, 2OT - Temple pushed the Aztecs to the limit, but came up short in the second overtime. Billy White and Kawhi Leonard each had 16 points to pace San Diego State.

Southeast

Florida 73 UCLA 65 - The Bruins made a game of it but they could not check Erving Walker late, who finished with a game-high 21 points.

Butler 71 Pittsburgh 70 - In a bizarre finish which saw two personal fouls in the final 1.4 seconds - one each against a player from each team - Matt Howard hit a free throw with 0.8 seconds left for the win. Shelvin Mack scored 30 points to pace the Bulldogs, who knocked off the #1 seed in the region.

BYU 89 Gonzaga 67 - Jimmer Fredette scored 34 points as the Cougars shot 52% from the field and made a shambles of Gonzaga's upset plans.

Wisconsin xx Kansas St. XX - The Badgers survived a poor shooting night (2-for-17) by Jordan Taylor, by slowing the pace of the game and hitting key three-pointers and free throws down the stretch. Jacob Pullen scored 38 points in a losing effort. Jon Leuer paced the Badgers with 19 points and seven boards.

Southwest

Richmond 65 Morehead St. 48 - In a battler between a 12 and 13 seed, the lower seed prevailed with a workmanlike effort. Justin Harper had 19 points to lead all scorers. The Spiders rung up 18 assists.

Connecticut 69 Cincinnati 58 - Kemba Walker fought through the pain of a sore left wrist to lead the Huskies over Big East rival Cincinnati. Despite the injury, Walker tallied a game-high 33 points and was perfect from the foul line, going 14-for-14.

Buzzer Beaters and Bracket Busters: Round of 64 Results, Early Games

East

West Virginia 84 Clemson 76 - the Mountaineers trailed early but rallied and led most of the second half, cruising to the win. They will face Kentucky in the next round.

Kentucky 59 Princeton 57 - John Calipari's youthful Wildcats survived an opening game scare from a very game Princeton squad. Josh Harrelson scored 15 points with 10 rebounds and 4 steals.

West

Temple 66 Penn State 64 - The Owls snapped a losing streak at the NCAA winning a nip-and-tuck battle with Vandy. Next up, San Diego State.

San Diego St. 68 Northern Colorado 50 - As expected, the powerful Aztecs cruised in their opening game. Kawhi Leonard led the way with 21 points.

Southeast

Butler 60 Old Dominion 58 - senior Matt Howard tipped in a loose ball as time expired to escape a close call with a very capable senior-led Old Dominion team. Howard played the majority of the second half with three fouls and, as usual, was in the right place at the right time.

Pittsburgh 74 NC-Asheville 51 - No match here, as the Panthers dominated. Ashton Gibbs led all scorers with 26 points, including 6 0f 9 from three-point range.

Southwest

Morehead State 62 Louisville 61 - In the upset of the day, Morehead State, the #13 seed from the Ohio Valley conference, knocked off #4 Louisville on a daring three-pointer by Demonte Harper with time running down and the Eagles behind by three. Louisville was left with lees than 3 seconds and could not get off a shot.

Richmond 69 Vanderbilt 66 - The Spiders, the region's #12 seed, hung with the Commodores throughout the second half, took a late lead and held on for the win over a badly over-seeded (#5) Vanderbilt team. Point guard Kevin Anderson was a thorn in Vandy's side all day and had the go-ahead bucket on a short runner from the left of the hoop and finished with a game-high 25 points.

Harper's 25 Points Lead Richmond over Seton Hall

College Hoops Player of the Day for Sunday, December 26, 2010

There was only one college basketball game played on Sunday, and the Richmond Spiders made sure to get their name on the map, winning, 69-61, at Seton Hall.

Seton Hall had no answers for the inside-outside game of junior Justin Harper. The 6'10" forward dominated from the three-point line, scoring a game-high 25 points, hitting 6-of-8 from beyond the arc and 9-of-17 overall. He also added 8 rebounds to help the Spiders improve to 10-3.

Seton Hall fell to 6-6, with Big East play beginning this week. The Pirates host South Florida on Tuesday, December 28.

Richmond Pounds Purdue as Anderson Scores 28

College Hoops Player of the Day for Saturday, November 27, 2010

Early-season holiday tournaments have been brutal to highly ranked teams this season as Purdue became the latest Top 10 team to taste defeat.

The Boilermakers were swarmed and held to 30% shooting by an aggressive horde of Richmond Spiders, falling in the final of the Chicago Invitational Challenge, 65-54.

Richmond pressed, trapped and harassed Purdue stars JaJuan Johnson and E'Twaun Moore into a combined shooting night of 8-for-28, while the Spiders' Kevin Anderson netted a season-high 28 points to lead all scorers. Anderson wasn't all that accurate, though he was persistent, nailing 9-of-20 from the field and 8-of-11 from the charity stripe.

The Purdue defeat was the 4th of the week for teams ranked in the top 10. Michigan State, Villanova and Kentucky had already felt the sting of defeat at the hands of unranked opponents. Adding to the carnage atop the rankings, #1 Duke hammered #4 Kansas State, 82-64 on Tuesday.

Notable: Kyle Singler threw down 30 points as $1 Duke dealt Oregon a 98-71 defeat and #9 Syracuse improved to 6-0, downing Georgia Tech, 80-76.