Field Level Media
Mar 17, 2022
Jacob Gilyard scored 24 points to help 12th-seeded Richmond to a 67-63 upset victory against fifth-seeded Iowa on Thursday afternoon in an NCAA Tournament Midwest Region first-round game in Buffalo.
Tyler Burton notched a double-double of 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Spiders (24-12). Nathan Cayo added 15 points for Richmond, including a key layup that produced a three-point lead with 1:24 to go and a three-point play 50 seconds later.
The Spiders held on to stretch their winning streak to five and advanced to face fourth-seeded Providence in the second round on Saturday.
"I couldn't be more proud of our guys," Richmond coach Chris Mooney said. "That was a tremendous effort. Particularly a great defensive effort against one of the best offenses in the country. Big Ten champs, that's a tremendous win for Richmond, tremendous win for these particular guys."
Inconsistency doomed the Big Ten tournament champion Hawkeyes (26-10). After using an 11-0 run to take a five-point lead with 16:24 remaining, Iowa slumped through a scoreless drought of 5:07 as the Spiders responded with an 11-0 run of their own.
Richmond, the Atlantic 10 tournament champion, led by as many as eight while shooting 42.1 percent. Iowa shot 36.4 percent and was 6-for-29 (20.7 percent) from 3-point range.
All-American Keegan Murray paced Iowa with 21 points and nine rebounds, while Patrick McCaffery chipped in 18 points, including four 3-pointers.
Although Iowa held a 40-36 rebounding edge, also getting nine boards from Filip Rebraca, the Spiders outscored the Hawkeyes 38-30 in the paint.
Richmond took a 29-28 lead into halftime after capitalizing on the last in a series of early Iowa gaffes. Fouled on an errant 3-point attempt with seven seconds left in the first half, Burton swished each of his free throws to put the Spiders ahead.
Iowa missed a trey and a jumper inside the arc just before the break, closing a first half that saw it struggle to 30.3 percent shooting, including 1-for-13 from deep.
"I thought we played one of my worst basketball halves all season the first half, and we were only down one," Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said. "So I knew we had a little bit of light left still in us, and we made a little bit of a run, but got to credit them. They did everything great tonight. They were locked in, and they're playing some of their best basketball this season right now."
Burton led all scorers with 14 first-half points, while Gilyard added nine. Murray paced Iowa with 10 points, while Jordan Bohannon was held scoreless en route to finishing with just six points.
Gilyard chipped in six rebounds and six assists for the Spiders.
--Field Level Media