CBI: Spiders use 3-point outburst to rally by St. John’s

The way St. John's pushed around the University of Richmond inside Wednesday night, the Spiders needed a bunch of 3-pointers to stay alive in the College Basketball Invitational.

UR got them, winning 75-69 at the Robins Center. The Spiders (19-15) play the winner of Wednesday night's Charleston-Troy game Monday night in the CBI quarterfinals, at a site to be determined.

Richmond made 12 of 20 from 3-point distance. Junior guard David Gonzalvez hit five of them and scored 27 points. The Red Storm (16-18) outrebounded UR 44-25, but committed 22 turnovers.

St. John's accelerated to a 19-5 lead by shooting layups. The Red Storm beat the Spiders down the court and hit 8 of its first 11 shots, with all but one of those field goals being dunks, follows and other variations of point-blank buckets.

Richmond didn't seem prepared, at first, for the length, speed and quickness of Big East Conference players. St. John's 6-8 forward Sean Evans matched his career-high (19 points) in the game's first 16 minutes, when he hit all nine of his close-to-the-hoop shots.

Gradually, the Spiders figured it out, prohibiting the Red Storm from taking so many high-percentage shots and keeping it off the offensive glass. St. John's led by 14 with four minutes left in the first half, but Richmond limited SJU to only two field goals the rest of the half.

UR reduced the lead to 39-33, in part because of 13 first-half turnovers by SJU, but trailed 41-33 at the break. It would have been tighter had the Spiders converted more than 4 of their 11 opportunities from the free throw line. The Red Storm made 62 percent in the first half, during which it outrebounded UR 21-11.

Moving forward: Richmond arrived with 18 wins, the program's most since the 2003-04 team that qualified for the NCAA tournament went 20-13. Also, UR was 5-5 vs. Big East Conference in the 10 meetings heading into this one.

St. John's, the seventh winningest team in college basketball history, started five sophomores and has eight freshmen. The Red Storm was picked to finish 14th in the 16-team Big East Conference, and went 6-12 in conference competition.

Both teams came in relatively hot. The Spiders had won seven of their past 10, including a victory over Xavier, which was ranked 17th at the time of that meeting. The Red Storm had won four of seven, including a pair of wins over Georgetown.

CBI news: This is the second College Basketball Invitational. Thirteen of the 16 teams involved this March won at least 18 games. UR is one of four teams in this CBI that played in the inaugural CBI.

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