‘Tremendous,’ rare win for Richmond
Spiders upset Kentucky, earn 1st victory over top 10 team
Richmond could hardly have played worse in the first half Sunday, yet it trailed No. 10 Kentucky by only a few points.
The Spiders pulled confidence from the small deficit and turned that into better execution after halftime, leading to the biggest win away from home in program history.
Blake Francis and Nathan Cayo powered Richmond to its first road victory over an Associated Press top 10 team, rallying in the second half to beat the Wildcats 76-64 in Lexington, Ky.
“You just get to play a team like Kentucky so rarely,” Richmond coach Chris Mooney said. “So for us to have the opportunity to play them with a great team is great, and we seized that opportunity.
“It’s a tremendous win. Kentucky loses very rarely, they lose out of conference very rarely, so this is a great win.”
The Spiders (2-0) had been 0-25 against top 10 teams and trailed 36-30 just after halftime. Francis and Cayo each finished with 18 points, many coming during a series of small scoring runs that pushed Richmond ahead.
“We were only down four at halftime, we felt like we played horrible,” said fifth-year forward Grant Golden, who overcame four fouls to finish with 13 points and seven rebounds.
“We didn’t make any shots, but we knew as long as we kept running our offense, shots were going to start to fall eventually. But it was really on the defensive end for us. We put two really good halves of defense together and that’s what ended up winning it for us.”
A 9-0 burst gave the Spiders the lead, and a 7-0 stretch made it 58-46 with 7:43 remaining. In between, Francis and Tyler Burton hit 3-pointers and Cayo converted a three-point play.
Kentucky (1-1) got within eight before Richmond answered with Jacob Gilyard’s fast-break layup and Matt Grace’s 3pointer for a 13-point edge with 4:40 left. Francis added a 3-pointer that made it 72-56 and sparked a celebration on the Spiders’ bench.
Richmond’s veteran core — 10 upperclassmen, including four graduates — overcame Kentucky’s latest roster makeover featuring seven freshmen and 10 newcomers. The Wildcats started four freshmen along with senior transfer Olivier Sarr, and growing pains showed after a crisp opening rout of Morehead State.
Hokies upset ’Nova: Keve Aluma scored 22 points and Nahiem Alleyne added 20 as Virginia Tech upset No. 3 Villanova 81-73 in OT on Saturday night in Uncasville, Conn.
Tyrece Radford added eight points and 13 rebounds for the Hokies (2-0), who didn’t know they would be playing the nation’s third-ranked team until early Friday morning.
Collin Gillespie scored 18 of his 25 points in the first half for Villanova (2-1). Caleb Daniels added 17 points and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl finished with 14 for the Wildcats.
The Hokies were supposed to face Temple on Saturday, but the Owls were forced to pause team activities for two weeks on Thanksgiving after a positive coronavirus test in the program. That meant canceling not only Saturday’s game, but a contest that had been scheduled for Dec. 3 at Villanova.
Bias gets Hall nod: Maryland great Len Bias will be inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
The organization on Sunday announced its eight-member Class of 2021, including Bias, Rick Byrd, David Greenwood, Hersey Hawkins, Jim Jackson, Antawn Jamison, Tom Penders and Paul Pierce.
A first-team All-American and two-time ACC player of the year, Bias finished his four-year career at Maryland as the program’s all-time leading scorer with 2,149 points. He averaged 16.4 points and 5.7 rebounds per game and led the Terps to the 1984 ACC tournament title, the school’s first in 26 years.
The Celtics selected Bias with the No. 2 overall pick in the 1986 NBA draft, two days before his death at age 22 in what the Maryland medical examiner determined to be a cocaine overdose.