RICHMOND, Va. - When the University of Massachusetts men's basketball team had ventured away from Amherst recently, the results often were not encouraging.

That changed Saturday, when the Minutemen led virtually all the way and turned back a second-half Richmond rally to post a 79-68 win at the Robins Center.

"It's kind of been tough for us on the road this year," said guard Chaz Williams of UMass, which improved to 3-5 outside of Massachusetts. The Minutemen's last road victory was Dec. 6 at East Carolina.

But UMass (15-5, 4-2 Atlantic 10) found the right combination against the Spiders and matched its win total from last year (15-15). The Minutemen had not won in Richmond since 2008.

"This was a huge game for us," said Williams, the sophomore transfer from Hofstra who had 17 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. "Coach pushed us really hard in practice and we just really wanted this win."

Leading by four at halftime, UMass went on an 11-3 run to start the second half to take a 46-34 lead before the Spiders (11-9, 2-3) cut it to two points on a two-handed slam by Francis-Cedric Martel with 11 minutes, 18 seconds left.

"Coach just told us in the huddle to keep your composure," said sophomore guard Jesse Morgan, who led the Minutemen with 20 points on 7 of 11 shooting and hit a key 3-pointer late in the game. "Play smart and make smart plays."

Morgan's 3 from the right corner with 6:25 to go gave UMass a 62-55 cushion and touched off a 7-0 run that put the Minutemen ahead by 11 with just over five minutes left. Morgan also nailed another 3-pointer to seal it with two minutes remaining.

"The (big) play was Jesse hitting a 3 in the corner," said UMass coach Derek Kellogg. "They cut it to four with 6½ minutes left and the ball swung freely from hand to hand, and he made a 3 in the corner to put us back up seven.

"If that didn't go in, I'm not sure the outcome would have been exactly the way it would have went," Kellogg added

The Minutemen got 15 points and seven rebounds from senior center Sean Carter, and 12 points off the bench from freshman Maxie Esho.

"What I thought was nice for our team was Terrell Vinson was one for seven (from the field) and (Raphiael) Putney had six points and we were able to win," said Kellogg. "We haven't been able to do that all year, at least in our conference and tough games like this.

"To have Maxie Esho really step up and give us one more guy was huge," he added. "We wanted to try and press Richmond a little bit so we wouldn't have to guard their offense for 35 seconds. I thought when Maxie came in, he did a great job bringing energy.

"He allowed us to press and it looked like he got his hands on a ton of balls at both ends of the floor."

Esho was four of six from the field and had five rebounds to go with two steals in 20 minutes. Esho, who is from Upper Marlboro, Md., had plenty of family and friends in the crowd of 7,231.

"Of course, that gave me more confidence," said Esho, who averages just under four points a game. "I was playing hard. I didn't want them to see me have a bad game. I was just focused on getting a win, on the same page as my team.

"This is a tough place to play, and they had a nice crowd," Esho added. "I just wanted to bring some energy."

The longer and more athletic Minutemen owned the glass 43-33 and held the Spiders to 32.3 percent shooting, including 4 of 24 from behind the 3-point line. UMass shot 48.3 percent.

"Their size and length that they have all over the court is really impressive," said Richmond coach Chris Mooney. "It helps them to defend in the passing lanes. And then so much is on Williams. He's such a dynamic playmaker.

"He can shoot and score but he's obviously so good when he penetrates when the defense collapses on him," added Mooney.

The Minutemen led for most of the opening half, taking a 35-31 advantage into the break as UMass was able to force the Spiders into playing an up-tempo game. The bench gave the Minutemen a big lift in the first half with 11 points.

Williams, the leading scorer for UMass at 15.8 points per game, did not produce anything until there were 5 minutes, 57 seconds left in the first half when he sank a pair of technical foul shots to give the Minutemen the lead for good at 25-23. But he heated up in the second half when UMass needed him the most.

The Minutemen are off for a week until they host Saint Louis at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Mullins Center.