Richmond Leader

Birthday boy Grace leads Spiders to win vs Fordham

Spiders forward Matt Grace celebrated his 24th birthday by scoring a career-high 21 points to lead Richmond to a 68-58 win vs Fordham at the Robins Center Sunday. Grace finished 5-9 from the field while adding five rebounds and a pair of assists.
 
"That's not only his best game, I think that's one of the best games I've seen recently," said Spiders Head Coach Chris Mooney of Grace's effort. "He played a great all-around game."
 
It was the second 20-point effort of Grace's career to go along with his 20-point showing vs Bucknell earlier this season.
 
"Everyone wants me to be as aggressive I can be, shoot as much as I can," said Grace. "I think I'm always someone who's going to make the right play. If Neal [Quinn] was scoring in the post the whole time, I'd be looking for him to get him the ball. But I've got to keep it in my mind that I've got to be aggressive as well, so that's something I'm going to try to do."
 
Tyler Burton added 18 points and a team-high eight rebounds for Richmond, which won its fifth straight game vs Fordham and improved to 19-1 in its last 20 meetings vs the Rams.
 
Richmond started the game on an 8-2 run, with much of the Spiders offense coming inside as Fordham decided to not double team Grace and Spiders center Neal Quinn. After opening 1-5 from the field, Fordham made eight of its next 10 field goal attempts to regain its offensive footing. The Rams led by as many as eight in the first half, but a thunderous slam dunk by Burton just before intermission narrowed Richmond's deficit to 35-29 and gave the Spiders a shock of momentum heading into the locker room. It was only Burton's second field goal attempt of the opening half.
 
"I think that was something they sought out to do before the game, to shut Tyler down," said Grace. "But he's a great player. He finds a way to do it."
 
After Fordham scored seven straight points to take a 47-36 lead with 12:12 to play, the Rams seemed poised to snap their eight-game losing streak in the Robins Center and beat the Spiders on their home court for the first time since 2007.
 
But Richmond responded with a 13-2 run to tie the game at 49 with 6:39 remaining. The Spiders took their first lead since 11-10 when a pair of Grace free throws made the score 55-53 with 3:33 to play.
 
The Spiders were able to keep Fordham at a distance from the foul line down the stretch, as Richmond made all 12 of its free throw attempts in the final 3:33. A three-pointer from Burton with 1:18 to play made the lead eight and sent the arena's sell-out crowd into a frenzy.
 
"The crowd was tremendous," said Mooney. "A sellout Sunday at noon is great and we're so appreciative of the support and how the crowd played itself into the game."
 
The win was Richmond's first since beating Rhode Island on January 17 and moved the Spiders to 12-12 this season, including 5-6 in the Atlantic 10.
 
"It's just always great to get a win." said Mooney. "Jim Miller, the Athletics Director who hired me, used to say 'There are no win-wins in basketball.' One team leaves the floor devastated and one team leaves it elated. There's no, 'Well, we played pretty well and shot better.' There's none of that. You just win or lose, and it was great to get a win."
 
Richmond is now 10-3 at home this season, the 13th time the team has won double-digit home games in 18 seasons under Mooney.
 
The Spiders will visit George Washington on Wednesday. The game tips at 7pm and will stream on ESPN Plus. 

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