RICHMOND — William & Mary men’s basketball battled back-and-forth all night with Atlantic-10 foe Richmond. In the end, it was the Spiders who made the last push over the final minute to pull out a narrow 90-86 win in an entertaining match-up on Tuesday night at the Robins Center.
Junior Reese Miller led four Tribe players in double figures with 18 points to go along with seven rebounds and three assists. Senior Kyle Pulliam and graduate student Cade Haskins added 16 and 14 points, respectively, while sophomore Ryan Jackson, Jr. was a perfect 4-of-4 at the field to total 10 points. Pulliam registered three steals and Haskins was 4-of-8 from 3-point range.
Trailing by eight with just three minutes remaining, W&M (2-1) rallied to pull even at 82. The Green and Gold used an 8-0 run to tie the game behind five free throws, including four from Pulliam, and a Miller left wing 3-pointer in transition to knot things with 59.1 seconds left.
Richmond’s AJ Lopez, who shared game-high scoring honors with 18, scored five-straight to put the Spiders on top for good. He scored on back-to-back lay-ups with the second resulting in a 3-point play to swing the momentum for the final time, 87-82. W&M twice pulled within three, but UR made 3-of-4 at the charity stripe over the final 14.4 seconds to pull out the win.
Richmond (3-0) used the free throw line and the glass to its advantage on the night. The Spiders were 35-of-46 at the free throw line (76.1%), including 19-of-22 (86.4%) in the second half. UR also outrebounded W&M 53-36 and pulled down 22 on the offensive end leading to 25 second-chance points.
The Tribe finished the night at 39.7% (25-of-63) from the floor, including hitting 11 3-pointers. The Green and Gold connected at an 80.6% clip (25-of-31) at the free throw line. W&M only turned the ball over seven times, while forcing 15 Spiders miscues and converting those into 22 points. The Tribe bench once again came up big with 40 points.
Back-to-back 3-pointers from Mikkel Tyne and Will Johnston gave the home team a 7-2 lead just 2:21 into the game. W&M answered with an 8-0 run over a 49-second span. Jackson, Jr. and graduate student Jhei-R Jones knocked down consecutive triples, before a Pulliam lay-up gave W&M a 10-7 lead at the 16:55 mark.
Richmond retook the lead, 13-10, with five in a row, including back-to-back buckets from Jaden Daughtry and Collin Tanner, just over five minutes into the game.
Pulliam ignited a 7-0 Tribe run with a shot-clock beating right wing 3-pointer to put the visitor back in front. Miller’s short pull-up jumper extended the Tribe’s lead to 23-18 with 9:13 left in the first half.
The Tribe lead remained five, 41-36, after Miller found Jackson, Jr. for a lay-up at the 2:36 mark. UR responded with an 8-0 run, featuring back-to-back 3-pointers from Aiden Argabright, and took a 44-43 lead into the locker room.
W&M scored first four points out of the locker room on a Kilian Brockhoff putback and a Pulliam jumper to take a 47-44 less than two minutes into the period.
The Spiders answered with seven in a row as part of 14-4 run to open up a 60-53 advantage. Argabright scored four in a row, before Johnston followed with eight straight. He connected on back-to-back 3-pointers and was fouled on a third. After Johnston hit the first two, Tanner tipped in the third miss to open up the seven-point margin at the 13:17 mark.
Haskins heated up at the right time for the Tribe to spark at 13-4 spurt. He hit three 3’s over a 2:06 stretch with the final of trio giving W&M a 66-64 lead with 10:56 remaining.
The game continued to teeter back-and-forth with an 11-3 Spider run. It started with a Jonathan Beagle old-fashion 3-point play, and Lopez scored the final four with his driving lay-up giving UR a 75-69 lead. The advantage reached its largest at eight, 82-74, on a Tynes shot-clock beating 3-pointer with just 3:05 left to set up the closing push.
Johnston scored 16 points on 4-of-10 from 3-point range, while Argabright tallied 15 off the bench and Beagle tallied a 10-point, 10-rebound double-double. The Spiders shot just 35.9% (23-of-64) from the field and 28.1% (9-of-32) from 3.
The Tribe continues its road swing when it travels to defending BIG EAST Champion and No. 13-ranked St. John’s on Saturday, Nov. 15. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. and the game will be televised nationally on truTV. W&M fans can listen into the Tribe Sports Network with Jack Angelucci on the call. The Tide 92.3 FM in Williamsburg is the flagship station of the Tribe Sports Network.
