Kendall Anthony scored a season-high 28 points, but the Richmond Spiders could not catch the Rhode Island Rams late, falling 79-74 on Sunday afternoon at a sold-out Robins Center.
Richmond (12-11, 5-5) scored 74 points against the nation’s 13th-stingiest defense in Rhode Island (16-5, 8-2), who has now won five in a row.
22 of Anthony’s 28 points came in the second half as he attacked the basket and got to the free throw line. His 10 free throws made set a new team season high as he finished 9-of-17 from the field.
The output marked Anthony’s third-straight 20-point game and the seventh of this season.
Junior Terry Allen recorded his second career double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds, also blocking two shots. T.J. Cline went 6-of-11 from the field for 13 points, his 15th double-digit scoring game this year.
Rhode Island’s E.C. Matthews scored a team-high 26 points with three threes, while Hassan Martin had a double-double of 16 points and 16 rebounds. T.J. Buchanan added 15 points for the Rams.
Richmond won the turnover battle (18-10) to convert 18 turnovers into 23 points. In a game that featured 58 total fouls, the Spiders performed well at the line in the second half (81 percent), but finished with a final mark of 64.9 percent on a season-high 37 free throw attempts.
Rhody used an early 6-0 run to open a 16-8 lead at the 12:43 mark, and was able to hold off Richmond for the rest of the half, taking a 33-26 lead into the locker room.
After URI extended its lead to 41-30, the Spiders once again mounted a strong second-half comeback. A 9-0 was punctuated by a steal from Deion Taylor and three-pointer from Josh Jones, cutting the lead to 41-39.
Each team’s offenses then started trading blows, resulting in a 27 total points over the next minutes. Anthony’s drives and finishes answered every Rhode Island basket and the margin was still just 55-52 with 7:05 left. However, a 10-2 Rhode Island run, capped off by a three from Matthews, put Richmond back into a quick hole with just 4:37 left.
The Spiders’ end-of-game execution was outstanding as Richmond extended the contest with full-court defense and turnovers. A jumper from Anthony with 28 seconds left brought the margin back to one possession at 73-70, but several near turnovers went URI’s way and the Rams were able to hit enough free throws to hold on for a 79-74 win.
Richmond will host Fordham on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in the Robins Center.
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