Burton, Grace lead Spiders to win over Bucknell

Wednesday, December 21

Robins Center

7:00 PM

University of Richmond

6-6,0-0Atlantic 10

Bucknell

7-5,0-0Patriot

Bucknell

Richmond

12/21/2022 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Mooney, Grace postgame Instant Highlights

RICHMOND, Va. – Tyler Burton led all scorers with 29 points as the Richmond Spiders defeated Bucknell 81-71 Wednesday night at the Robins Center. It was Burton's 16^th career 20-point outing and second in as many games.

"He's a great player who doesn't express that ego quite as much because he's a great kid," said Richmond Head Coach Chris Mooney of Burton. "But that's really what I want him thinking: how good he is, how often he's done this, and how much of an impact he can have all the time in the game and tonight he was special."

Matt Grace added a career-best 20 points, making a career-high seven field goals on a career-high 14 attempts.

"Tonight was really kind of how we see him a lot at practice," said Mooney of Grace. "He shoots the ball very well. He can get other guys shots. He has a great sense of what's going on. He can play multiple positions. He's a matchup problem a little bit for smaller guys and for bigger guys. I think there will be many more games like this."

Richmond made 14 three-pointers, its most since hitting 16 vs Georgia State on November 16, 2021, and shot a season-best 54 percent from three-point range (14-26). Grace went 4-6 from three-point range, while Burton hit all six of his three-point attempts, joining Davidson's Foster Loyer and Duquesne's Dae Dae Grant as the only Atlantic 10 players to go 6-6 or better from three-point range in a game over the last three seasons.

Bucknell led 19-17 just past the midway point of the opening half before Tyler Burton scored seven straight points to kickstart a 24-6 Spiders run over the final 8:31 before halftime. The Bison made just two of their final 10 shots to end the half and committed seven turnovers over that span.

"Defense is always our primary focus," said Grace after the game. "Whenever our shots aren't falling or the offense isn't going as smooth what we really look to do is pick it up on the defensive end and that really translates to good offense."

Bucknell got within seven in the second half, cutting Richmond's lead to 63-56 with 7:41 remaining. But the Spiders answered with a three-pointer from Burton and a three-pointer from Grace to shut the door on the Bison.

"I thought our defense in the first half was terrific and I thought our offense was very good throughout the game," said Mooney. "We kept taking care of the ball and scoring at the [offensive end]."

Jason Nelson also finished in double figures for Richmond, scoring 12 points. Burton's five rebounds led Richmond while Andre Gustavson recorded a team-high four assists. The Spiders turned the ball over just six times, their lowest in any game this season and less than their average (13.2) entering the game.

Richmond will take a break for Christmas before returning to action at the Robins Center vs Coppin State on December 28.

"I'll have to do something to stay in shape because three or four days off won't look good on me," said Grace of his plans for his holiday break.