Richmond beats No. 10 Kentucky, 1st road win vs top 10 team
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — 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 “We didn’t make any small deficit and shots, but we knew as turned that into better long as we kept running execution after halftime, our offense, shots leading to the were going to start to biggest win away from fall eventually. But it home in program history. was really on the defensive end for us. We
Blake Francis and put two really good Nathan Cayo powered halves of defense together Richmond to its first and that’s what road victory over an ended up winning it for Associated Press top u s. ”
10 team, rallying in A 9-0 burst gave the the second half to beat Spiders the lead, and the Wildcats 76-64. a 7-0 stretch made it
“You just get to play 58-46 with 7:43 remaining. a team like Kentucky In between, so rarely,” Richmond Francis and Tyler Burton coach Chris Mooney hit 3-pointers and said. “So for us to have Cayo converted a the opportunity to play three-point play. them with a great Kentucky (1-1) got team is great, and we within eight before seized that opportunity. Richmond answered with Jacob Gilyard’s
“It’s a tremendous fast-break layup and win. Kentucky loses Matt Grace’s 3pointer very rarely, they lose for a 13point out of conference very edge with 4:40 rarely, so this is a great left. Francis added a win.” 3-pointer that made
The Spiders (2-0) it 72-56 and sparked had been 0-25 against a celebration on the top 10 teams and Spiders’bench. trailed 36-30 just after Golden made two halftime. Francis and free throws for Richmond Cayo each finished with 10 seconds with 18 points, many left before Burton coming during a series grabbed Kentucky’s final of small scoring runs miss to seal it. that pushed Richmond Richmond’s veteran ahead. core — 10 upperclassmen,
“We were only down including four at halftime, we four graduates — felt like we played horrible,” overcame Kentucky’s said fifth-year l at est roster forward Grant Golden, makeover featuring who overcame four seven freshmen and fouls to finish with 13 10 newcomers. The points and seven rebounds. host Wildcats started four freshmen along with senior transfer Olivier Sarr, and growing pains showed after a crisp opening rout of Morehead State.
Kentucky committed 11 of its 21 turnovers in the second half, all of which Richmond converted into 22 points after going scoreless before halftime. The Wildcats also didn’t record an assist after posting five before the break, in addition to shooting 31%.
Of the six Wildcats that played at least 10 minutes, five were freshman.
Richmond shot 59% from the field after halftime. It was the Spiders’ first victory over a ranked team on the road since topping No. 14 Virginia Commonwealth 64-55 on Jan. 31, 2015. The Spiders improved to 14-22 against top 25 opponents.
B.J. Boston Jr. had 20 points and Sarr 17 for Kentucky, which outrebounded Richmond 54-31 but shot 36% and all missed all 10 tries from behind the arc.
“It’s a lesson for all of us,” Sarr said. “It’s just the second game of the year. We’ve got to pick our heads up, because we got a whole lot of games coming . ... Just learn from our mistakes and move on.”
A POTENT BITE
The Spiders improved to 6-5 against the Southeastern Conference under Mooney, who has beaten a Power 5 Conference team in 14 of 16 seasons at Richmond. OTHER STATS Kentucky fell to 26845 against unranked foes under coach John Calipari and 13-3 lifetime against the A-10.
POLL IMPLICATI ONS
Kentucky will likely fall out of the top 10 with the loss. Richmond earned 40 votes last week but should gain quite a few more toward getting in the rankings with a huge win.
THE TAKEAWAY Richmond’s biggest deficit was just six points, close enough to claw back in what was a backand-forth contest for 26 minutes. Cayo was 8 of 13 from the field while Francis contributed three big 3s despite 6-of-19 shooting. The Spiders were just 7 of 25 from long range, but that was plenty since Kentucky missed everything from deep.
Kentucky came back to earth after showing surprising cohesion, accuracy and poise in last week’s opening rout over Morehead State. The Wildcats shot well in the first half but cooled considerably after that and looked out of sync for much of the second half. The road gets even tougher with Power 5 opponents from here on out, including Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, UCLA and rival Louisville following Kansas.
UP NEXT
Richmond visits Charleston on Wednesday.
Kentucky faces No. 6 Kansas on Tuesday night at the Champions Classic in Indianapolis. The Wildcats are 2-3 recently against the Jayhawks, including a 71-63 home victory in January 2019.