The Spiders traveled to Wake Forest and brought home a victory thanks to one statistic: turnovers.
Fueled by a dominant defensive performance by senior Trey Davis, Richmond forced 20 Wake Forest turnovers, allowing the team to shoot 13 more shots than the Demon Deacons. Davis and TJ Cline combined for eight of the Spiders' 11 steals.
The Deacons pulled to within two points with about three minutes left in the game, stealing all the momentum and exciting their home crowd. But Richmond stopped the party right there, using two blocks from Virginia Tech transfer Marshall Wood and a steal from Davis to keep Wake Forest from scoring at all in the final three minutes.
"Down the stretch we got some big stops that helped us win this game," coach Chris Mooney told SpiderTV after the game. "I thought Trey Davis was incredible. Marshall Wood made some big plays for us late as well."
Davis and Cline were also the keys to another explosive offensive performance as well, as Richmond scored 91 points in its nine-point win. Davis finished with a ridiculous stat line of 17 points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals. He did everything for the Spiders. Cline was the team's leading scorer, though, with 19 points, 12 of which came from 3-pointers.
Another bright spot for Richmond was Wood's offensive performance. He contributed to spreading out the Wake Forest defense with four 3-pointers and 15 points of his own.
Two more Richmond players scored in double figures, highlighting the ball movement that Mooney's Princeton-style offense calls for. ShawnDre' Jones finished with 16 points and Terry Allen finished with 12, despite foul trouble for both of them.
The only issue for Richmond on Wednesday was, as it typically is, rebounding. The Deacons, a much taller team all around than the Spiders, grabbed 39 rebounds. Richmond had just 23, although the deficit was more prevalent in the first half than in the second, a big reason for the Spiders' win.
"That was the focus at halftime, just being able to keep them off the boards and staying tight on defense," Davis told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "They're a really big team, much bigger than us, so we felt like if we could keep them off the glass, things would work out in our favor."
The Spiders, now 2-1, will play again at 6 p.m. on Saturday as they host Bethune-Cookman in the Robins Center.
Contact sports editor Charlie Broaddus at charlie.broaddus@richmond.edu
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