Shooters shoot, so even though he was 0-6 from three-point range, Nick Sherod – he of the 200+ career three-pointers – let fly from 22 feet on the right wing with less than nine minutes remaining in Richmond’s game vs Bucknell Wednesday at the Robins Center.
The shot nestled through the hoop for Richmond’s first three-pointer of the second half, snapping a streak of 11 straight three-point misses from the Spiders and pushing UR’s lead to 13.
Richmond would make its next five shots from long range, with four more coming from Sherod, as the Spiders used a 27-6 run in the final eight minutes to pull away from Bucknell for an 81-50 win.
“Once I missed the sixth one, I was kind of like ‘you know what, it’s not my night,’ said Sherod. “But they kept passing it to me, and they kept passing it to me. They have confidence in me and want me to keep shooting. I feel like I’ve made shots in the past, I’ve gotten hot in the past. Once you see one go down, especially when you’re struggling, it kind of opens everything else up. You’ve got to take them to make them I guess.”
While Sherod provided the offensive firepower late, the Spiders defense starred for the entire 40 minutes, holding Bucknell to a season-low 50 points, 24 fewer than their average entering the game and the fewest points for a Spiders Division I opponent since a 65-50 win vs George Mason on February 19, 2020.
“I thought that we were really good defensively,” said Richmond coach Chris Mooney. “Bucknell’s greatest offensive weapon is the three-point shot and we wanted to make sure we were as glued to our guys and tight as we could be to make sure that we didn’t give up too many threes.”
The Bison shot 6-19 from three-point range (32%) and 21-55 from the field (38%) while committing 16 turnovers that led to 24 Richmond points.
Grant Golden led Richmond with 22 points and 10 rebounds while shooting 10-12 from the field and securing his 17th career double-double and first of the season. Golden scored 14 of his points in the first half, when Richmond overcame an early deficit to take a 37-26 lead into the locker room. Bucknell twice pulled within 10 midway through the second half but could never cut the lead to single digits.
Sherod finished with 15 points, as did Tyler Burton for UR. Jacob Gilyard matched a career high with 11 assists and added five steals to become the first player in Division I history to reach 400 career steals (402).
Richmond has won six straight games following a 3-4 start, its longest single-season win streak since February-March 2015. The Spiders concluded the non-conference portion of their scheduled with a perfect 6-0 record at home, tying its third-longest home win streak to start a season in 17 years under Chris Mooney.
The Spiders will open Atlantic 10 play on December 30 against Saint Joseph’s. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 PM at the Robins Center. The game will be shown on NBC Sports Washington Plus, NBC Sports Philadelphia Plus, and ESPN Plus.
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