Richmond gets rare chance to play top-10 team, and Spiders pull off upset of No. 10 Kentucky on road.

Richmond could hardly have played worse in the first half Sunday, yet it trailed No. 10 Kentucky by only a few points in Lexington.

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.

“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 (six) at halftime, we felt like we played horrible,” said fifthyear 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.”

No. 2 Baylor 86, Washington 52: Jared Butler scored 20 points and Baylor (2-0) won again without quarantined coach Scott Drew in Las Vegas. RaeQuan Battle led Washington (0-1) with 10 points in its opener.

No. 11 Creighton 69, North Dakota State 58: Christian Bishop scored 13 of his 16 points in the second half, Antwann Jones fueled the decisive run in the first half, and Creighton (1-0) opened the season with a victory over visiting North Dakota State (0-1).

No. 17 Houston 64, No. 14 Texas Tech 53: Marcus Sasser scored 17 points playing close to home, and Houston (3-0) never trailed in a victory over Texas Tech (2-1) in the Southwest Showcase at Fort Worth, Texas.

No. 18 Arizona State 100, Houston Baptist 77: Marcus Bagley scored 21 points, fellow freshman Josh Christopher added 17 and Arizona State (2-1) used a huge firsthalf run to rout visiting Houston Baptist (0-2).

No. 23 Ohio State 74, UMass-Lowell 64: Duane Washing ton Jr. scored 21 points and host Ohio State (2-0) had to rally from a second-half deficit to defeat UMass-Lowell (1-2).

No. 24 Rutgers 70, Hofstra 56: Ron Harper Jr. had 15 points and nine rebounds, Jacob Young had 17 points and Rutgers (3-0) beat visiting Hofstra (0-1).

No. 25 Michigan 81, Oakland 71 (OT): Isaiah Livers scored 22 points and Hunter Dickinson had all 19 of his points after halftime, helping host Michigan (2-0) outlast Oakland (0-4).

West

Boise State 86, Sam Houston State 55: Derrick Alston Jr. had 27 points as Boise State (1-1) rolled past Sam Houston State (0-3) in the Southwest Showcase at Fort Worth, Texas.

Seattle 63, Air Force 45: Riley Grigsby had 13 points to lead five Seattle University (3-0) players in double figures as the Redhawks got past Air Force (1-1) in Las Vegas.

Rhode Island 84, San Francisco 71: Fatts Russell had 21 points, going 11 for 11 from the foul line, and Rhode Island (2-2) beat San Francisco (2-2) in the Hall of Fame Tip-Off Classic at Uncasville, Conn.