Burton, defense lead Richmond to win over George Washington

Wednesday, January 4

Robins Center

7:00 PM

University of Richmond

8-7,1-1Atlantic 10

George Washington

7-8,1-1Atlantic 10

George Washington

Richmond

Burton, defense lead Richmond to win over George Washington

01/04/2023 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Mooney, Bigelow Postgame Instant Highlights

RICHMOND, Va. — A strong defensive effort in the second half helped Richmond to a 73-63 win over George Washington in the Robins Center Wednesday as the Spiders improved to 8-7 on the season and 1-1 in the Atlantic 10.

Richmond held the Colonials to 24 points on 31 percent (10-32) shooting from the field in the second half after George Washington led 39-37 and made 52 percent (15-29) of its field goals over the game's first 20 minutes.

"We really defended great in the second half," said Spiders Head Coach Chris Mooney. "I've been saying that I think we could be a great defensive team and the second half tonight was another example of that. We made a few adjustments but more importantly we were just able to really focus our defense and make it difficult for GW to score."

"I think it was getting stops on the defensive side," said Spiders forward Isaiah Bigelow as to what allowed the Spiders to separate from the Colonials down the stretch. "Offense wasn't a problem the whole game, but we got to string together a couple of defensive stops and that got our lead up a little bit."

Tyler Burton, who entered the night as the second-leading scorer in the Atlantic 10, led Richmond with 26 points. GW's James Bishop, the A-10's leading scorer, finished with 25 points but was just 3-10 from the field in the second half.

"Our emphasis was to make somebody else beat us," said Bigelow of Bishop. "He started giving the ball up a little more in the late second half and that was our goal."

Burton has scored at least 20 points in five straight games, the longest streak by a Richmond Spider since Justin Harper during the 2010-11 season (also five games).

"He drove the ball so well off of the pass," said Mooney. "He's obviously so quick and gets to the basket so quickly. I thought that was really impressive. He put so much pressure on the rim with him driving in there all night."

But, Mooney added, it was a pass from Burton that impressed him the most Wednesday. "He threw a back-door layup. For me that, was the highlight," said Mooney of Burton's back-door pass to Andre Gustavson for a layup with 9:07 to play.

Richmond is now 7-1 at home this season and has won six straight games vs George Washington, its longest win streak in a series that spans 106 games and 98 years.

GW's largest lead came with 8:21 to play in the opening half, when a 7-0 spurt put the Colonials ahead 25-20. Richmond used a 7-0 run of its own to retake the lead for good early in the second half, when a jumper by Burton, a dunk by Neal Quinn, and a three-pointer from Jason Nelson put UR ahead 48-44 with just under 14 minutes to play.

A three-pointer from Jason Roche with 5:08 remaining was the Spiders last field goal, but Richmond shot 9-10 from the foul line down the stretch to seal the victory.

Nelson finished with 11 points for Richmond, while Isiah Bigelow added nine points and a team-high eight rebounds.

The Spiders will host Duquesne Saturday at 6 PM on NBC Sports Washington and ESPN Plus.