Chris Mooney and his Richmond Spiders defeated the Temple Owls 58-54 today in the second 2011 Atlantic 10 semifinal match-up of the day. Somewhere Johnny Newman is smiling.
The No. 3 seed Spiders will face surprise finalist Dayton, who courtesy of a late season collapse entered the Atlantic 10 tournament as the No. 9 seed.
Kevin Anderson's 22 points on 8 of 17 shooting led the Spiders, receiving support from fellow senior Justin Harper, who finished with 18 points and 9 rebounds. The line of the game though has to go to Richmond forward Kevin Smith, who grabbed 14 rebounds while shooting 0 for 3 from the floor and 0 for 2 from the stripe.
Temple was led in defeat by guard Juan Fernandez, who was just a wee bit shy of recording a triple double, finishing with seven points, seven rebounds and 10 assists.
I'll leave you with this random fact: Richmond holds the distinction of being the only school to win NCAA tournament games as a No. 12, 13, 14 and 15 seed.