Richmond Hands Rhode Island Third Straight Loss Wednesday

By Ally Martini
GoRhody.com Staff

Rhode Island Starters
Kortright, House, Weston, Green, Fuchs

Richmond Starters
King, Hunt, Bailey, Bigelow, Quinn

How it Happened
A slow start to the second half caused Rhode Island to suffer an 85-77 loss to Richmond on Wednesday night at The Ryan Center.

Despite the Rams (11-15, 5-8 Atlantic 10) leading 42-40 at the break, a 15-6 run by the Spiders (19-7, 11-2 A-10) to open the second half allowed the visitors to build a lead.

In that spurt, Rhody went more than three minutes without a basket as Richmond went up 51-45. Eventually, Cam Estevez hit a 3-pointer as the shot clock wound down to stop the bleed. The Spiders were mostly in command from there, quietly stretching their advantage back out to 73-59.

URI threatened to make a run down the stretch, using a pair of free throws from Luis Kortright to trim the deficit down to five points with a minute and a half to go, but Rhody was unable to complete the comeback.

The Rams were solid in the opening 20 minutes, leading for the majority of the period after taking their first lead at 12-11. David Fuchs sparked the offense, pouring in 17 points while notching 12 in the paint. Though Rhode Island had led by nearly 10 points, Richmond kept itself in the fight, signaling what was to come in the second half.

Inside the Box Score

• Forward David Fuchs had a dominant performance, setting a career high with 23 points. He eclipsed his previous career high of 15.
• He also corralled 12 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season.
• He was one of four Rams that scored in the double-digits, joined by guard Jaden House (13), forward David Green (12) and guard Luis Kortright (11).
• Kortright dished out five assists and added four boards. Both he and Green were a perfect 3-for-3 from the charity stripe.
• Forward Tyson Brown had six points and three boards off the bench.
• Rhode Island shot 77.8% from the free throw line, converting 14 of 18 attempts. The Rams are .740 from the stripe in February, a marked improvement from the season average of .643.
• The teams were nearly dead even in looks, though Richmond made 33 of its 60 attempts (55%) and the Rams were 27-of-59 (46%).

Up Next
Rhode Island will head out for a game at La Salle on Sunday, Feb. 25. Tip-off is set for 12 p.m. and the game will be carried nationally by the USA Network.