Cold Spell Dooms Spiders vs Duquesne in A-10 Tournament

Thursday, March 4

Richmond, VA /Siegel Center

11:00 AM

University of Richmond

13-8,6-5Atlantic 10

Duquesne

9-8,7-7Atlantic 10

Duquesne

Richmond

Cold Spell Dooms Spiders vs Duquesne in A-10 Tournament

03/04/2021 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

RICHMOND, Va. -- A stretch of more than nine minutes without a field goal late in the second half was too much for the Richmond men's basketball team to overcome Thursday vs Duquesne in the Atlantic 10 Tournament.

Tyler Burton's spinning, reverse offensive putback with 9:28 to play extended Richmond's lead to six. His uncontested layup with two seconds remaining made the final score 67-62 in favor of Duquesne. In between those field goals, Richmond missed all six of its shots from the field and committed five turnovers as the Dukes caught and passed the Spiders en route to a berth in Friday's A-10 Quarterfinals.

"We couldn't find shots and we weren't making shots," said Burton of the Spiders nine-minute stretch without a field goal.

The Spiders were playing without leading scorer Blake Francis, who missed the game with a hip injury suffered in the first half vs Saint Joseph's on Monday. "It's going to be tough without any starter, but especially Blake," said Jacob Gilyard, who started alongside Francis for the first 20 games of the season. "I think in that nine minutes that we didn't score, he would have got us a bucket. It was tough."

Even with Francis sidelined for the first time all season and second-leading scorer Grant Golden playing his third straight game with a fractured finger on his left hand, the Spiders showed little signs of being out of rhythm early, Gilyard and Golden combined to score Richmond's first nine points as UR hit four of its first five shots from the field.

Five minutes into the game, Burton got going, scoring 10 points during an 18-3 Spiders run that gave Richmond a 27-13 lead with eight minutes remaining in the opening half. Richmond led 37-30 at halftime as Burton posted 13 points and eight rebounds in the opening 20 minutes.

Duquesne cut the Spiders lead to four early in the second half before a 7-0 Spiders spurt put Richmond back up double digits at 46-35 with 13 minutes remaining. Richmond would go scoreless for nearly four minutes before Burton's acrobatic putback gave UR a 48-42 lead with 9:28 to play and started the Spiders stretch of more than nine minutes without a field goal.

"I wish we had played better, but I thought we played really hard and left everything out there" said Spiders head coach Chris Mooney. "Uncharacteristically, we had high turnovers and shot a low percentage and we obviously need to give Duquesne credit for that."

Richmond finished with 16 turnovers, 11 in the second half, matching its season high from its December 13 game at West Virginia. Richmond's field goal percentage of 35.3 was its second-lowest of the season behind the Spiders other game at the Siegel Center against VCU on February 17, when UR hit 32.8 percent of its shots from the field.

Burton led all players with 18 points and 11 rebounds for his fifth career double-double. Gilyard added 12 points, four assists, and three steals. His final assist gave him 573 for his career, matching the school record held by Richmond Athletics Hall-of-Famer Greg Beckwith. Golden added 10 points, six rebounds, and a pair of blocks.