AMHERST — Richmond hit 3-pointers at an almost historic rate and UMass couldn’t keep up.
The Spiders erased an early Minuteman lead and pulled away for a 75-64 win over home team, Wednesday at the Mullins Center.
Richmond entered the game as a bottom-of-the-pack 3-point shooting team (32.9 percent) and UMass allowed opponents to hit 33.8 percent from deep.
But the Minuteman 3-2 zone, which fueled a win over La Salle and controlled the Spiders early, gave them some good looks from 3-point range and they took advantage early. Even after UMass switched to man-to-man, Richmond was already in rhythm. It made 15-for-26 (57.7 percent) from outside including 7-for-9 (77.8) in the second half to pull away.
“You don’t want to just settle for 3s, but we obviously shot the ball well,” Richmond coach Chris Mooney said.
“The 3’s were coming from everywhere,” UMass coach Derek Kellogg said. “We need to do a better job of guarding the 3.”
Like they did on Sunday, the Minutemen started their second unit, and for the first 14 minutes of the game, everything seemed to click. UMass moved the ball crisply and defended effectively.
Recognizing Richmond’s prior success defending the perimeter, the Minutemen attacked the middle effectively as the Minutemen built a 30-19 lead on a tip-in by Rashaan Holloway with 6:04 left.
But Richmond switched to a matchup zone that limited UMass’ ability to get the ball inside and the Spiders offense came to life. It had three 3-pointers in a 12-2 run that cut UMass’ advantage to 32-31 at halftime.
“On the matchup I thought we might be able to make them take a little more time,” Mooney said. “They were aggressive early. They have good young players, but when they see a different defense for the first time, it’s hard to make the adjustment.”
Intermission did nothing to cool off Richmond. The Spiders scored the first 10 points of the second half and the Minutemen couldn’t recover.
Luwane Pipkins, who had 19 points, tried to resuscitate the Minutemen. For just under 7 minutes he was the only UMass player to score, as his 12 points in that stretch was all the kept his team alive. “The first one went in and then the second one,” Pipkins said. “I was in my groove after that.”
But he didn’t get enough help as Richmond pulled away.
T.J. Cline, the Spiders’ conference player of the year candidate, had just 9 points and 3 rebounds, but directed their modified Princeton offense from the middle and finished with 7 assists.
“He didn’t score like he usually does but his passing, it was hitting his hands and then the ball was in the right spot to the right guy before we could even rotate. His I.Q. for the game is phenomenal. He played an MVP type game without dominating the stat sheet.”
ShawnDre Jones led all scorers with 26. Brison Gresham added 12 points and 8 rebounds, while Holloway added 15.
UMass lost despite controlling the boards and shooting well. It outrebounded the Spiders (18-11, 12-5) 28-18 and allowed just one offensive rebound. The Minutemen shot 50 percent (28-for-58), although they hit just 3 of 17 3-pointers.
UMass (14-16, 4-13 Atlantic 10) will close its regular season at St. Bonaventure Saturday at 4 p.m.