Rhode Island 73, Lafayette 65

Published Dec. 22, 2010 9:26 p.m. ET

foxsports

Akeem Richmond scored 16 of his 25 points in the second half to lead Rhode Island to a 73-65 comeback victory over Lafayette on Wednesday night.

The Rams (8-4) trailed 37-31 at halftime and 40-32 with 17 minutes left in the second half, but two 3-pointers from Richmond and another from Marquis Jones cut Rhode Island's deficit to 42-41 with 14:10 to go.

Nikola Malesevic hit a 3 with 2:13 left to break a 62-62 tie as the Rams scored the final eight points of the game.

Malesevic finished with 15 points, Jones added 14 and Richmond was 7 of 11 from 3-point range (63.6 percent).

The Leopards (4-8) were 9 for 25 from the floor in the second half (36 percent).

Ryan Willen scored 21 points and Jared Mintz added nine points and nine rebounds.

Rhode Island was 14 of 27 from behind the arc (51.9 percent) and 24 for 52 overall (46.2 percent).