Atlantic 10 Tournament: Davidson Pulls Upset, Will Face VCU On Saturday In Semis

(Photo by Jeff Auger – Double G Media)

The night session of the Atlantic 10 Tournament Day 3 may have featured the best atmosphere of the tourney so far. VCU and St. Bonaventure were the top two seeds playing in separate games on Friday night with one semi-final already set earlier between St. Joseph’s and Dayton. The first game of the night featured a recent NCAA Final Four participant in the VCU Rams.

VCU Rams vs. UMass Minutemen

While the game may have been in Brooklyn, the atmosphere at Barclays Center was that of VCU home game at the Siegel Center. The pro-VCU crowd saw the Rams begin the game slow but pick the pace of the game quickly which gave UMass issues in the first half.

While the tempo of the game increased and VCU had the lead, both UMass and VCU were shooting terribly from the field. It was a matter of who could knock down the shots when needed and the Rams were just a little better from the field than the Minutemen. The big difference came on the boards as VCU dominated the rebounding battle especially offensive rebounds. In the first half VCU out-rebounded UMass 30-16 and dominated the offensive rebounding battle 13-2 which led to 12 second chance points for the Rams. That helped VCU to a 39-30 halftime lead with Justin Tillman leading the Rams in scoring with 10 points in the first half.

The second half started with VCU going on a 9-2 run to open the half to extend their lead out to 48-32. All of this for the Rams without VCU hitting a three-point shot as they were 0-of-11 from long range at the 15:58 mark of the second half. VCU stretched their lead out to 24 and the rout was on. The pro-VCU crowd was enjoying the game as UMass struggled once again with the up-tempo pace that VCU deployed throughout the second half.

Although the Minutemen struggled, one of the bright spots for UMass was the continued good play from Rashaan Holloway, who followed up his good effort against Rhode Island on Thursday with another double digit game against VCU scoring 18 points and grabbing eight rebounds. But even Holloway’s second good game in a row couldn’t slow down the Rams as VCU cruised to an 85-70 victory. Melvin Johnson led VCU with 19 points while the Ram defense forced 12 UMass turnovers.
As the flag read when the team started warmups “Havoc Lives Here” and havoc was what VCU unleashed on UMass.

St. Bonaventure Bonnies vs. Davidson Wildcats

Similar to the VCU/UMass game, it felt like a home team for St. Bonaventure as the Barclays Center turned into Bonnie central. Early the Bonnies gave their fans a lot to cheer about as they raced out to a quick lead. But as the first half went on however, turnovers began to throw St. Bonaventure’s offense into disarray and Davidson capitalized with four three-point field goals to take a 26-21 lead past the halfway mark of the half.

While the Bonnie offense stalled at certain parts of the 1st half, St. Bonaventure were able to go on a 9-0 run to close out the first 20 minutes leading Davidson 37-32. Dion Wright led the way for St. Bonaventure with 14 points while Jack Gibbs knocked down two threes on his way to 13 points for Davidson who stayed within striking distance for the beginning of the second half.

St. Bonaventure picked up where they left off from in the first half after they scored the first second points of the second half to extend their lead to 44-32 before Davidson even scored their first basket of the half. To Davidson’s credit, they tried to stay in the game thanks to the Wildcat defense but St. Bonaventure, even with their turnovers, were still able to extend their lead to double digits due to the Wildcats not being able to capitalize and make opportune baskets when needed. While the game seemed out of reach, a series of silly fouls gave the Wildcats the opportunity to cut the lead down to five at 70-65 with 3:16 to go in regulation.

Davidson cut the lead down to one until Marcus Posley an off-balance shot with the shot clock running down to stretch the Bonnie lead to three. Davidson’s Peyton Aldridge was then fouled attempting a game-tying three and proceeded to make all three fouls shots with 10.9 seconds remaining to tie the game at 75 and take it into overtime.

In overtime, Davidson jumped out to a six-point lead within the first 90 seconds of the extra period. Dion Wright was not letting St. Bonaventure go down and pulled St. Bonaventure within two until Brian Sullivan hit a big three to bring the lead back to five. After scoring to make it 88-85, the Bonnies was able to get the ball back with 19.3 left but were unable to hit the game-winning shot en route to the 90-86 upset win for Davidson. With the win, the Wildcats move on to play VCU in the second semifinal game at 4 p.m. on Saturday.