Spiders Top Wake Forest As Mooney Sets School Record For Wins

Saturday, December 1

Robins Center

7:30 PM

University of Richmond

Wake Forest

Richmond

Spiders Top Wake Forest As Mooney Sets School Record For Wins

12/01/2018 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery Golden and Gilyard Postgame Coach Mooney Postgame

UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. – The Spiders used balanced scoring throughout the game and clutch free-throw shooting in the closing minutes on Saturday night to take an 84-74 win over the ACC's Wake Forest at the Robins Center. With the win, head coach Chris Mooney becomes the all-time winningest coach in Richmond men's basketball history with 240 victories, breaking a tie with Dick Tarrant.

"It's really a humbling thing," said Coach Mooney. "The first day I was here Coach Tarrant was at the press conference. He was good enough to come over. I think the first game he won was against Wake For 18021

est, so that's nice. John Beilein called me – he was the first voicemail that I had. Bill Dooley – his daughter Megan became part of our program – so it's more of just that I'm so humbled to be here and part of what those guys created and built and I'm appreciative of all the players and coaches and managers and staff that we've had who have helped us."

To get the record-setting win, Mooney went deeper into his bench than at any point this season, with nine Spiders playing at least seven minutes.

Grant Golden led Richmond early, scoring seven points in the opening minutes to give the Spiders a 14-10 lead at the first media timeout. Wake Forest cut the lead to one with under 12 minutes to play in the half, before Jacob Gilyard rallied Richmond.

Gilyard, back in the Spiders lineup after missing two games with a groin injury, scored on two-straight fast break opportunities before assisting on a three from Julius Johnson. He followed it up with a steal on a Wake Forest inbounds play and a jumper to cap a 7-0 run and give the Spiders a 26-19 lead with 7:45 to play remaining before halftime.

A runner from Brandon Childress capped a Wake Forest spurt that cut the Spiders lead to one at halftime, 38-37.

Wake Forest rallied after intermission to take a 43-40 lead on another Childress layup, but the Spiders responded with an 11-0 run to go up 51-43 and never let the Demon Deacons get closer than five down the stretch, mostly thanks to a 18-21 performance from the free-throw line.

Golden finished with a game-high 24 points to record his fourth straight 20-point game, the longest streak by a Spider since T.J. Cline did it in 2017 en route to winning A-10 Player of the Year honors.

Nathan Cayo finished with 17 and is now averaging 19.3 points and shooting 73 percent from the field in his last three games. Gilyard totaled 14 points and a career-high nine assists and added a game-high five steals.

As a team, the Spiders recorded 21 assists to just three turnovers, their fewest giveaways in a game since 2013 (three vs Charlotte in the A-10 Tournament). Richmond is just the third team to have at least 20 assists and three or fewer turnovers against a D-I opponent this season, joining Pepperdine (Nov. 26 vs Idaho State) and Oakland (Nov. 9 vs Toledo).

With the win, Coach Mooney now has at least one win against a major-conference opponent in 13 of his 14 seasons at Richmond.

The Spiders return to action on Wednesday, December 5, when they host Coppin State. Game time at the Robins Center is set for 7 p.m and the game can be seen on ESPN+ and NBC Sports Washington+.