Richmond led wire-to-wire in a 94-78 victory over preseason Sun Belt favorite Georgia State Tuesday night at the Robins Center.
Tyler Burton scored a game-high 20 points to lead five Spiders in double figures as Richmond’s bench posted 45 points, its most vs a Division I opponent in the last seven seasons.
“Georgia State is a really good team, they just didn’t play their best tonight,” Richmond coach Chris Mooney said. “I was really please how we started defensively. We were aggressive and assertive [on defense] and we were potent on offense.”
The Spiders utilized a different starting lineup for the first time this season, with Isaiah Wilson making his third career start in place of Nick Sherod. Sherod entered the game just ahead of the 16-minute mark and provided instant offense, hitting a pair of three-pointers and converting an And-1 as part of a 16-5 Richmond run to open the game. Georgia State closed to within in five points with five minutes left in the first half, but Richmond locked down on defense to close out the period with a 17-9 run and push its halftime lead out to 13 points at 49-36.
Richmond opened the second-half scoring seven-straight points with buckets from Grant Golden and Nathan Cayo and three free-throws from Burton. The Spiders led by 28 at the 14-minute mark of the second-half and 32 at the six-minute mark before the Panthers narrowed the score against Richmond’s reserves.
The Spiders shot 16-29 from three-point range, tying the Robins Center team record for three-pointers in a game. Burton, Sherod, and Matt Grace all hit four three-pointers for Richmond. Sherod finished with 16 points while Grace added 14, the second-highest total of his career.
“It doesn’t really make a difference,” said Sherod of his role coming off the bench. “Whatever they ask me to do I’m going to try to do it to the best of my ability.”
Golden tallied 15 points, five rebounds and four assists while Cayo pulled down eight boards and registered a career-best six assists, tied with Jacob Gilyard for the most on the team. The Spiders 24 total assists were their most in a game since February 2018 vs UMass (27).
Ten different Spiders scored at least two points as the squad shot 61 percent from the floor, their best in a game over the last two seasons.
“There is depth of talent,” said Mooney of the contributions from the bench. “We’re certainly in good shape in that department and we need to continue … to build on it in terms of their contribution and not shy away from it.”
Richmond heads on the road Saturday to take on Drake in Des Moines, Iowa, for a 1 p.m. contest on ESPN Plus.
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