| Spiders falter late in 93-82 loss to No. 21 VCU |
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| Written by Admin |
| Wednesday, 06 March 2013 19:12 |
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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Cedric Lindsay and his Richmond teammates have done it plenty - play well on the road, then fade in the closing minutes. They did it again in their home city Wednesday night, losing 93-82 at No. 21 VCU. ``Every road game is hard to win,'' Lindsay said after leading the Spiders with 22 points. ``We're not happy with keeping it close. We want to win, and we think we're going to win.'' They had every reason to think they had a chance at the Siegel Center, particularly after Terry Allen swished a 3-pointer from the right corner to tie the game at 79 with 3:13 to go. Then it all fell apart as VCU scored 11 consecutive points, and Richmond (17-13, 7-8 Atlantic 10) was on its way to its seventh loss in eight conference road games. ``Some of their really good players made really good plays,'' Spiders coach Chris Mooney said. ``They played great. Their defense was great and tonight their offense was great too.'' Treveon Graham scored 15 of his 21 points in the second half, including the go-ahead basket with 2:58 to play, as the Rams avoided a sweep of the season series. Juvonte Reddic added 16 points for the Rams (24-6, 12-3), who remained in control of at least the second seed in the conference tournament later this month. Allen added 13 points and Alonzo Nelson-Ododa and Kendall Anthony had 11 each for Richmond. Graham's driving basket broke the tie, and after a turnover by Lindsay in the lane, Reddic dunked for the Rams, bringing the sellout crowd in the Siegel Center to their feet. When Reddic scored again with 1:40 to play to make it 85-79, chants of ``VCU! VCU!'' broke out in unison. The late surge prevented a repeat of the teams' meeting on Jan. 24 at Richmond, when the Spiders erased a seven-point deficit in the final 40 seconds, forcing overtime on a long 3-pointer by Darien Brothers in the final seconds, and then swamped the stunned Rams in overtime for an 86-74 victory. This one was just as close until the final minutes. Richmond trailed by six points early in the second half, but used a 14-4 run to open a 63-57 lead with 13:21 to play. The last eight points came in a span of 50 seconds on a 3-pointer by Brothers, Derrick Williams' stickback and, after a turnover by VCU, another 3-pointer by Nelson-Ododa. The Rams responded with a 10-2 burst that featured a three-point play and rare 3-pointer by Theus, giving them a 67-65 lead with 9 1-2 minutes to play, and it remained a possession-by-possession game until Graham's drive put the Rams ahead, and they ran away for the double-digit victory. Theus, playing his final home game at VCU, added 13 points and Rob Brandenburg had 12. VCU closed the first half on a 13-4 run, getting four points each from Melvin Johnson and Theus and a 3-pointer from Brandenburg with 2 seconds left to take a 43-41 lead. --- Follow Hank on twitter at: http://twitter.com/hankkurzjr |
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