CAA tournament results: Sunday’s games

On Thursday there were 12 teams with some kind of chance to win the CAA’s automatic bid to the NCAA postseason tournament. Now there are just two left standing. In the final game on Monday night at 7 p.m. the first seed, Old Dominion (25-8), will meet the third seed, William & Mary (22-9).

The following report is from Scott Day, VCU’s Director of Athletic Communications:

RICHMOND, Va. – The lead to this game can’t be written, it could only be seen on the faces of the Virginia Commonwealth University men’s basketball team as it walked off the hardwood at the Richmond Coliseum with heads hung low.

The Black & Gold had left everything out on the floor, but unfortunately it was the Monarchs of Old Dominion that came up with a couple big plays down the stretch to come out the victors in an instant classic, 73-69, in overtime, in front of a sellout crowd of 11,200.

“I’m extremely proud of the way this team has bought into what we’re trying to do and progressed throughout this year,” Head Coach Shaka Smart said. “We had one goal coming into this tournament and we gave it all we had in this building for three days, unfortunately, we needed it to be four.”

Five different players scored in double-digits for the Rams, but it could not offset the outstanding play by First-Team All-CAA honoree Gerald Lee, who went 10-of-13 from the field for 26 points.

“He was terrific today,” Smart said. “He was extremely physical today, which typically isn’t his game, but he did a great of that today and we just couldn’t find an answer for him.”

Much like the quarterfinal game, VCU found itself in a back-and-forth first-half with neither team holding a lead of bigger than five points and a free-throw from Kent Bazemore with four seconds left in the half sent ODU into the break with a 32-29 advantage.

The Black & Gold would turn up the heat to start the second half, ripping off a 23-9 run to start the second half spurred by three steals and capped off by a fast-break dunk from senior T.J. Gwynn (Burlington, N.C.).

Old Dominion showed why they were 15-3 in regular season conference games, getting excellent play from Lee and Marsharee Neely to eventually tie the game up at 60-60 on a offensive putback with less than three minutes to play.

Junior Joey Rodriguez (Oviedo, Fla.) drilled a pull-up jumper, but Lee answered with a jumper of his own to even the score at 62-62. Neither team was able to find the basket over the final 1:55 as the game moved to overtime.

The teams traded baskets to start the overtime period, but a steal and dunk by Bazemore gave the Monarchs a two-point lead and Ben Finney drilled a three-pointer with 1:08 to play to push the lead to five.

Junior Brandon Rozzell (Richmond, Va.) connected on a three-pointer from the wing and VCU forced a five-second call on the inbounds to get another shot to tie the game. However, a jumper from junior Ed Nixon (St. Petersburg, Fla.) rolled off the rim and Lee knocked down two free-throws to secure ODU’s first championship game appearance since 2005.

Nixon led the way with 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting, while Rodriguez and sophomore Bradford Burgess (Midlothian, Va.) each chipped in 13 points apiece. Junior Jamie Skeen (Charlotte, N.C.) tallied 11 points, while Rozzell added 10 off the bench for the Black & Gold.

The Rams will now have to play the waiting game for their postseason destiny with bids to all the tournaments being announced next Sunday, March 15th.

Click here to see the box score.

The following report is from Rob Washburn, CAA Associate Commissioner

RICHMOND, Va., March 7, 2010 – Senior guard David Schneider’s (Phoenix, Ariz.) only points of the game came on a 3-pointer with 37 seconds remaining and lifted third-seeded William and Mary to a 47-45 victory over #2 Northeastern in the second semifinal of the 2010 Virginia 529 College Savings Plan CAA Men’s Basketball Championship.

The Tribe (22-9) advances to Monday’s 7 p.m. championship game against top-seeded Old Dominion (25-8), while the Huskies drop to 20-12 with the loss. It will be W&M’s second trip to the title game in the past three years, and it will be looking to win its first CAA championship and earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament for the first time.

Senior guard Danny Sumner (Fairfax, Va.) tallied a team-high eight points for the Tribe, while junior forward Marcus Kitts (Holly Springs, N.C.) contributed seven points and a team-high nine rebounds.

Northeastern was led by senior forward Manny Adako (Decatur, Ga.), who scored a game-high 14 points, and senior guard Matt Janning (Watertown, Minn.), who chipped in 12 points.

Northeastern jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, but a pair of long-range jumpers by senior guard Sean McCurdy (Jersey City, N.J.) and Sumner sparked a 16-2 Tribe run to give W&M a 16-6 advantage with 9:14 left in the first half. The Tribe increased the advantage to as many as 16 points before taking a 31-17 lead into the locker room.

Northeastern turned the tables in the second half, opening the period on a 16-6 run. Janning’s jumper with 11:07 remaining trimmed the lead to four, at 37-33. The Huskies held the Tribe without a field goal for over nine minutes until Matt Rum slashed to the hoop and was fouled on the made basket.

The Huskies tied the game at 39 on a pair of free throws by senior guard Baptiste Bataille (Ferin, France) with 5:37 remaining and NU took the lead for the first time since 4-3 when Janning was fouled and hit both from the charity stripe with just over three minutes left.

Down 43-42, Sumner’s jumper bounced off the iron, but Kitts tipped it in to give W&M a one-point lead with 1:30 left. Adako answered, giving the Huskies the lead back, 45-44, on a jumper with 1:01 to go.

On the ensuing possession, sophomore guard Quinn McDowell (Mason, Ohio) found Schneider on the right wing for the game-winning 20-footer with 37 seconds left. Schneider, who is the Tribe’s leading scorer and the all-time 3-pointer leader in school history, had been 0-for-8 from the floor and 0-for-7 from beyond the arc until that point.

Northeastern had seven shots in the final 20 seconds to tie or win the game. Senior Nkem Ojougboh’s (Scottsdale, Ariz.) layup in the closing seconds rolled off the rim to give the Tribe the victory.

The Tribe improved to 6-1 this season in one-point games, which includes a 53-52 triumph over Northeastern during the regular season.

W&M shot just 26.1% from the floor in the second half and 37% for the game, while NU shot 34% from the floor, including only 24% in the first 20 minutes.