Up-and-Down Effort Enough for Spiders to Overcome Buffalo

Thursday, December 21

Robins Center

7:00 PM

University of Richmond

7-5,0-0Atlantic 10

Buffalo

1-10,0-0MAC

Buffalo

Richmond

Up-and-Down Effort Enough for Spiders to Overcome Buffalo

12/21/2023 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

RICHMOND, Va. — For the game's first 34 minutes, Richmond was rolling Thursday night vs Buffalo. For the final six minutes, the Spiders were at a standstill.

A 20-point lead shrank to six down the stretch, but Richmond was able to hold on for a 72-66 win to improve to 7-5 on the season, including 6-0 at the Robins Center. The win was Mooney's 350^th as a Division I head coach, making him one of 46 active D-I coaches with 350 career wins.

"I'm pleased we won the game tonight, though disappointed we didn't play a better game," said Mooney.

Neal Quinn led Richmond with a game-high 23 points, his most in two seasons with the Spiders and one off his collegiate career high.

"Pretty much as soon as [Coach Mooney] watched Buffalo he was like 'Neal, we're going to need you to get the ball inside and score.' So we've been drilling that the last few days and I just went out there and did it."

Quinn scored the game's first six points as Richmond made a point of working the ball into the paint early, with Buffalo starting 6'8" Sy Chatman at center.

"It's always the plan, really," said Mooney of Richmond's efforts to feed Quinn the ball in the post. "We've been talking to Neal of having that mindset of really trying to score. The more he tries to score, the more clear [his] passes are. That's always something we're trying to do. I think it was even more so tonight because of the matchup and how good Neal is and how well he's been playing."

The Spiders opened up their first double-digit lead on a Dji Bailey fastbreak layup 2:03 before halftime to make the score 37-26. Bailey's layup was part of a 9-0 Richmond run that helped the Spiders take a 42-32 lead at the break.

And 11-0 run over a span of five minutes early in the second half stretched the Spiders lead to 55-36 with 13:20 to play. With 6:03 to go, Mikkel Tyne's driving layup gave Richmond a 20-point cushion at 66-46.

But it would be the last Richmond field goal of the game. The Spiders missed their final four shots from the field and committed four turnovers in the final six minutes, allowing the Bulls to close the game on a 20-6 run.

"That's very disappointing," said Quinn of the final stretch of the game. "Especially for a team as old as we are with seventh-year seniors and grad transfers. We shouldn't be doing that. It's inexcusable. It's not who we are. It's not what we do. It just can't happen again."

Despite the shaky final stretch, Richmond won its 10^th straight home game vs a non-conference opponent and guaranteed it would enter A-10 play with a winning record for the 15^th time in 19 seasons under Mooney.

"I don't think we played well tonight, and I'm disappointed in that. But I think we have played well. We've played a really difficult schedule," said Mooney. "We've been away a lot and played a really high-quality schedule. When you do that, you're going to run into challenges, but I think we've played well."

Isaiah Bigelow finished 15 points and a game-high 12 rebounds, securing his third career double-double and first this season. Bailey scored 13 points, one off his career high, and Jordan King added 10, the final Spider in double figures.

Richmond is off for nine days, the Spiders longest holiday break since 2007. UR will return to action on December 30 vs Lafayette at the Robins Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 4 PM on ESPN and Monumental Sports Network.

"I really love this group of guys and this team, and while I'm disappointed tonight I really like where I think we can be as we keep going," said Mooney.