Spiders blitz Drake behind Quinn, Nelson

Saturday, December 10

Robins Center

2:00 PM

University of Richmond

4-5,0-0Atlantic 10

Drake

8-2,1-1MVC

Drake

Richmond

12/10/2022 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Mooney, Quinn postgame Instant Highlights

RICHMOND, Va. – The Richmond Spiders spent finals week studying two primary subjects: how to reverse a trend of first-half deficits and how to score more efficiently from the post. In their test vs Drake Saturday, the Spiders showed how much they've learned over the last seven days.

Richmond opened the game on a 17-0 run and scored 46 points in the paint, 16 more than in any other game this season, in an 82-52 win at the Robins Center.

"I was thrilled with the start of the game. It's been an emphasis," said Spiders coach Chris Money. "The start was tremendous, and I thought our defense really set a tone. I thought our defense was terrific over the first 10-12 minutes of the game and set a tone for the entire afternoon."

The Spiders lead grew to 29-6 midway through the first half as Richmond held Drake to 1-12 from the field to start the game and forced six Bulldogs turnovers in the opening nine minutes.

Richmond led 47-25 at halftime after registering 14 more points than they had scored in the first half of any of their first eight games this season.

Drake never got close than 17 points in the second half as Richmond cruised to the 30-point win, its largest since an 81-50 victory vs Bucknell on December 22 last season.

Jason Nelson scored a game-high 19 points while shooting 6-9 from the field and 3-3 from three-point range. Quinn added 17 points and six rebounds while making eight of his nine shots from the floor.

"The last few games I haven't been playing as well as I wanted to. So that was an adjustment period," said Quinn. "But just talking with former coaches – T.J. Cline was a great help – current coaches, pretty much just knowing everyone has faith in me because they've seen what I'm able to do and just going out and being aggressive from the jump. I owe it all to them really. I'm very grateful."

"Everybody is pulling for him," said Mooney of Quinn, who transferred to Richmond this offseason after an All-Conference season at Lafayette. "I've tried to talk to him, because he's such an intelligent player, about the more aggressive he is, the better it is for us no matter what happens. Today he was just terrific."

Tyler Burton added 17 points, many of them coming at or near the rim. Richmond's 46 points in the paint were 21 more than its season average entering the game and the most by the Spiders in any contest since January 5, 2022 vs Massachusetts (also 46).

"If we want to have continued success, it's my responsibility, it's Matt [Grace's] responsibility, it's Tyler [Burton's] responsibility to score on the block because that relieves pressure from our shooters," said Quinn. "You can't shoot 50 percent every game, so being able to score from the block will win you games."

Richmond will return to action Tuesday at 7 PM at the Robins Center against FDU. The game will be televised on MASN and ESPN Plus.