“The road to making the championship game is never an easy road,” said VCU head coach Jeff Capel of his team’s hard-fought effort Sunday night against UNC Wilmington.
Nothing came without a battle for the Rams in their 55-46 win over the Seahawks in the semifinals of the Colonial Atletic Association tournament in front of 7,177 fans at the Richmond Coliseum.
The Seahawks (19-10) came out early and established a more relaxed style of play, which didn’t fare very well as they shot only 30 percent from the field, hitting only 9 of their 30 first-half attempts. The Rams (19-11) weren’t able to capitalize from the field either, shooting a similar 30.4 percent from the floor amd hitting only 7 of their 23 attempts.
At the half, both teams went in deadlocked at 21-21.
The second half started out with the same offensive struggle on both ends of the court. UNCW was able to build a 5-point lead with help from senior forward Aaron Coombs. Both Coombs and sophomore guard T.J. Carter led the Seahawks in double figures with 12 and 14 points, respectively.
Surprisingly quiet for the night was Seahawks’ junior guard John Goldsberry who only had 6 points on the night.
“I felt we did a good job of our awareness for Goldsberry on the court, as opposed to our last two meetings against UNCW,” Capel said.
Only two Rams reached double figures, but every player who hit the floor points contributed.
VCU senior guard Michael Doles, who scored 11, converted on two free throws early in the half to bring the Rams back to within 3 points of the Seahawks.
Once again UNCW would go up by 5 as junior forward Mitch Laue converted on a put-back bucket and free throw, and soon after Coombs’ connected on the easy lay-in with 8:06 remaining in the game.
The Rams weren’t far behind as they went on a 7-0 run to lead 40-38, with field goals from both senior guard Alexander Harper, and junior forward Nick George.
George, the other double-figure scorer for the Rams, scored 6 of his team-high 13 points in the final three minutes of the game. With 2:53 left on the clock, VCU turned up the defensive effort as they forced a turnover just after sophomore guard B.A. Walker hit a leaning jumper with the shot clock winding down to four seconds.
“Our defense brought our offense late in the game,” explained senior Michael Doles of the nine points VCU received from UNCW turnovers in the second half. A last-minute effort from Seahawks’ junior guard John Goldsberry was attempted from the free throw line as he hit all three of his attempts with 1:41 remaining to cut the deficit to five.
Unfortunately it just wasn’t enough for UNCW as George (4-for-4 from the line), Doles, (2-for-2), and Walker (1for-2) all hit clutch free throws down the stretch to clench the win.
With Sunday night’s win, the defending CAA champion Rams advance to Monday night’s title game, where they will meet No. 1 seed Old Dominion at 7 p.m. for a chance to reach the NCAA Championship two years in a row.
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