The Richmond Spiders put up big points yet again to prevail 91-82 at Wake Forest on Wednesday night. Richmond (2-1) won its fourth game over the Demon Deacons in the last six meetings, and it marked the 17th Spider win over a power-five squad in the last decade.
“Down the stretch we got some big stops that helped us win this game,” head coach Chris Mooney said. “I thought Trey Davis was incredible. Marshall Wood made some big plays for us late as well. It says a lot about our team that we got big contributions from everyone when some of our starters had foul trouble. We really respect this series and I’m glad that we got the win tonight.”
UR shot a scintillating 51.6 percent from the field, hitting 11 three-pointers. With tonight’s scoring output, the Spiders tied for the second-most Richmond points through three games since 1954.
T.J. Cline led five players who reached double figures in scoring. Cline tallied 19 points with four threes and seven rebounds. ShawnDre’ Jones scored 16 and Marshall Wood had 15 points as the two combined for six threes.
However, UR was led at winning time by the second-half performance of senior Trey Davis. His final stat line boasted a career-high 17 points with six rebounds, five assists, four steals and a block. Davis was aggressive against the Demon Deacon defense, scoring a number of big baskets to keep Richmond’s lead late, while his steals and block in the final four minutes kept Wake Forest from mounting a comeback.
Terry Allen scored 12 points as he battled foul trouble all evening, but his perfect 8-of-8 performance from the free throw line gave Richmond some clutch points.
Bryant Crawford led the Demon Deacons with 21 points and six assists, but he also committed seven turnovers.
Wake Forest turned the ball over 20 times, thanks to 11 Spider steals. Richmond had just six turnovers while dishing out 18 assists. The Spiders ran it up and down the court with strong intention, scoring 27 points off turnovers and nine on the fast break, compared to just two fast-break points for Wake Forest.
The first half was back and forth as each team tried to adjust to a high number of called fouls. On the game, Richmond shot 72 percent from the line to take advantage of 22 free throw attempts. The Spiders held a 41-39 lead at the break as 10 players entered the game to manage foul trouble.
The beginning of the second half featured dagger three pointers from Cline and Dinos Mitoglou as the teams battled back and forth for control. The game had 10 ties and 12 lead changes.
A three-pointer from Davis gave the Spiders a 65-59 lead with 12:22 remaining, and then he converted a three-point play just two minutes later to push UR’s lead to 70-61. Davis’ layup at with eight minutes left gave the Spiders their largest lead of 78-66.
The Demon Deacons refused to go away, however, mounting a 9-0 run to cut the margin to 84-82 with just 3:08 left. But Richmond responded yet again with another Davis layup and superb defense.
Wake Forest didn’t score over the last three minutes as Richmond recorded three blocks and two steals.
The Spiders will be back in action on Saturday night in the Robins Center, as Richmond hosts Bethune-Cookman at 6 p.m.
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