Spiders Top La Salle on Road for Second Straight Win

Wednesday, February 19

Philadelphia, PA

6:30 PM

University of Richmond

10-17,5-9Atlantic 10

La Salle

12-15,4-10Atlantic 10

Richmond

La Salle

02/19/2025 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA — The Richmond Spiders took control of their road matchup at La Salle with a 9-0 run during a critical stretch of the second half Wednesday and held on for a 63-58 win, their second straight victory.

"We had a stretch there in the second half where I really thought we looked like Richmond basketball, where the ball was moving, we were moving and we made a couple shots," said Spiders coach Chris Mooney. "So that was really, really positive."

Mikkel Tyne scored a game-high 17 points, none of them bigger than the three he recorded on a corner jumper with 6:22 remaining that pushed Richmond's lead to 54-46, its biggest of the game. Tyne finished 5-6 from three-point range, matching the most threes in a game in his career. Tyne has now scored in double-figures in a career-best four straight games and is averaging 18 points per game over his last three contests.

"Mikkel has really made some strides here the last couple days," said Mooney. "Tonight, he was really a hard person to guard and took care of the ball well and got us organized well. He had a very nice game and that's a couple [in a row] now."

Mike Walz finished with 11 points, 11 rebounds, and a career-high six assists for his second career double-double and first since the season-opener vs Mount Olive. He's the first Spider to reach those totals in a game since T.J. Cline vs Saint Louis on March 4, 2017.

"We know that a team like La Salle is very physical. A lot of their scouting report was just they go for offensive rebounds. So what I'm most proud about in my individual stat line is not the points it's the defensive rebounds," said Walz, who had 7 of his 11 rebounds on the defensive end.

B. Artis White also reached double figures, finishing with 12 points including four critical free throws in the final 11 seconds.

After a 9-0 run gave UR a 54-46 lead with 6:22 remaining, La Salle scored eight of the game's next 10 points, including six from the foul line, to close its deficit to 56-54 with less than three minutes to play.

After the teams traded missed field goals, Jason Roche missed a three-pointer with 90 seconds to play but Dusan Neskovic grabbed the offensive rebound, one of 10 for the Spiders on the night. Richmond called timeout and found Roche again for three, and this time his deep attempt from the wing was good, putting Richmond ahead 59-54 with 1:19 remaining.

La Salle scored back-to-back buckets to close the gap to one, but Richmond secured the win with a pair of late stops: the first after an error on an inbounds attempt gave the Explorers the ball with a chance to take the lead with 24 seconds to go and the last on a contested potential game-tying three-point attempt with four seconds on the clock.

"They were so much less comfortable as the game went on than they were at the beginning," said Mooney of the La Salle offense, attributing the difference partially to a series of adjustments UR made to their ball screen coverage at halftime.

"We really did what we needed to do on the defensive side with our rotations and making sure that once that shot goes in the air we're getting [the rebound]," added Walz.

Richmond improved to 10-17 on the season and 5-9 in the Atlantic 10. UR has won two straight and three of its last five games following a seven-game losing streak. The Spiders have also won two in a row and seven of their last nine vs La Salle.

The Spiders will remain in Philadelphia for the next two days before taking on Saint Joseph's Saturday at 12:30 PM on USA Network.

"Courtney [Hughes] has made all the arrangements for our guys academically, where they can see a class virtually, where they have all their work," said Mooney. "After that then we'll get ready for [Saint Joseph's].