Spiders Upended on Road by Boston College

Wednesday, November 15

Chestnut Hill, MA

7:00 PM

University of Richmond

2-1,0-0Atlantic 10

Boston College

3-0,0-0ACC

Richmond

Boston College

11/15/2023 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — For 13 minutes Wednesday night, the Richmond Spiders looked like the power-conference squad, scoring easily and forcing host Boston College of the ACC into careless turnovers and bad shots. But a defensive adjustment and increased ball pressure knocked the Spiders off track, as BC erased a 14-point deficit and rallied for a 68-61 win at Conte Forum.

After scoring 28 points in the game's first 13 minutes, Richmond managed just 33 over the game's final 27 minutes, including zero during a critical five-minute stretch late in the first half that allowed BC to shrink a 14-point deficit to one.

"At the beginning of the game when they were hedging ball screens their center was way, way out. We were able to take advantage of that," said Spiders Head Coach Chris Mooney. "Then they started to drop their ball screen coverage which is why we took a couple jump shots because we got in there past the first guy and the big guy was waiting down in the lane."

Richmond missed 10 straight field goal attempts as Boston College went on a 13-0 run to make the score 28-27 with two minutes left in the first half. UR responded with six straight points, but an Eagles three-pointer at the first-half buzzer shrunk Richmond's lead to 34-30 at halftime.

Boston College took its first lead of the game on a three-pointer with 16:52 remaining to make the score 39-38 and built its lead to 10 with four minutes to play. Richmond was able to cut the lead to five, but could get no closer, falling to 2-1 on the season.

The Spiders, hitting on 52 percent of their field goal attempts and 42 percent of their three-point field goal attempts entering Wednesday, shot 40 percent from the field and 26 percent from three-point range (5-19).

"We had some decisions that we made where we could be a little more patient and keep throwing the ball [around] and not try to get something back all at once," said Mooney. "I thought our best possessions were when we moved the ball and it went from one side to the other and our cutting showed up. I thought when we got a little bit less movement, I thought those shots were harder for us and we weren't as effective at scoring."

The one Spider who had little problem scoring was center Neal Quinn, who registered a game-high 21 points on 9-15 shooting from the field. "It was really just a matter of showing the work that I've put in and knowing the scouting report," said Quinn, who added six rebounds, five assists, and four blocks. He became the third player in the nationa to record 21 points, six rebounds, five assists, and four blocks vs a power-conference opponent over the last two seasons.

"I think Neal had, if not the best game of his Richmond career, certainly one of them against an All-ACC player," said Mooney.

Boston College turned 14 offensive rebounds into 18 second-chance points, 15 more than the Spiders. "They hurt us on the backboard a little bit and we didn't in turn hurt them enough with our shooting and cutting," said Mooney.

Richmond will return to action Monday when the Spiders face 25^th-ranked Colorado at the Sunshine Slam in Daytona Beach, Fla. The game will tip at 8 PM on CBS Sports Network.