Wichita State zone stymies Spiders in 56-53 loss

Thursday, November 17

Robins Center

7:00 PM

University of Richmond

2-2,0-0Atlantic 10

Wichita State

2-1,0-0AAC

Wichita St.

Richmond

11/17/2022 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Mooney, Bigelow postgame Quick Highlights

RICHMOND, Va. – Wichita State held Richmond to 53 points, 23 below Richmond's season average entering the game, allowing them to squeeze out a three-point win at the Robins Center Thursday in the first-ever meeting between the Shockers and the Spiders.

From the opening tip, Wichita State's length and zone defense forced Richmond into long possessions and contested shot attempts, as the Spiders opened 1-8 from the floor and fell behind 12-3 in the game's early stages.

"I thought that we were a little surprised by the zone at the beginning of the game," said Spiders coach Chris Mooney. "We were tentative when we broke the press. We're usually pretty good at popping right into our offense. We were a little bit tentative and took a few seconds, and that made the attack of the zone a little bit slower and from a little bit farther out."

Wichita State led 28-19 at halftime after holding Richmond to 31 percent shooting from the field, including 3-17 from three-point range, in the game's opening 20 minutes.

"If you wind up shooting threes against the zone, that's going to happen a lot," said Mooney. "But it's the threes that you get. Has the ball been inside and come back out? Did somebody get by a guy and make the zone collapse to a certain degree? Or did you just throw it around the perimeter? We probably had four or five where we just threw it around the perimeter in the first half and, man-to-man or zone, those aren't going to be good enough shots. "

Richmond quickly found more openings in the Shockers zone in the second half, as Spiders forward Isaiah Bigelow scored the first five points after halftime to pull Richmond within four at 28-24.

Richmond continued to attack, taking its first lead since the game's opening moments with 10:17 to play on a thunderous And-1 dunk by Bigelow that brought the crowd of 5,896 to its feet for a sustained standing ovation. Moments later, a three-pointer from Bigelow put Richmond up 45-39 with 9:35 remaining.

"We came down the court and just played," said Mooney of Richmond's improved offense after halftime. "We moved the ball much better, got open shots, got ourselves in the lane."

Wichita State answered with a 13-2 spurt over the next five minutes to take a 52-47 lead with 4:11 to play. Richmond had a shot to tie the game at the end of regulation, but the Spiders were unable to get a potential game-tying three-pointer away after having the ball under their own basket with 2.1 seconds to go.

Richmond finished the game shooting 38 percent from the field, including 8-29 (28 percent) from three-point range.

"When you see a zone, a big part of that is we have to make some shots," said Mooney. "We got much better shots in the second half, so they're easier to make, but you do have to knock down some shots and make them pay for scrambling or packing the lane or whatever it is. We just didn't do that quite enough."

Bigelow led Richmond with 16 points and 11 rebounds for his second career double-double and first at Richmond. Tyler Burton added 15 points and eight rebounds.

Up next for the Spiders is a matchup with Syracuse at the Empire Classic at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. Tip-off is scheduled for Monday at 7pm on ESPN2.