By Paul Gotham
BROOKLYN — Never has a 20-point game felt so close.
Never, also, did a game seem so ready to follow a pre-determined script.
That was the case Saturday afternoon when the No. 1-seed Davidson Wildcats met the No. 5-seed VCU Rams in the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 Championship.
Davidson opened the contest on 16-4 run. VCU responded with their own of 40-12.
It looked like the Rams, who hit 8 of 14 attempts from behind the arc in the first half, would run away with this one, but there was the lingering thought of a final Davidson barrage. After all, on the previous day, Davidson trailed the La Salle Explorers by 18 before Tyler Kalinoski scored at the buzzer for an improbable comeback.
Just as they had on Friday, Davidson switched defenses in the second half. From man, to 2-3, to a 1-2-1-1 to a 1-3-1, and with VCU’s starting point guard, JeQuan Lewis on the bench with foul trouble, it had the same effect…almost.
And it started – 16 straight.
Kalinoski curled off a screen. Jack Gibbs caught his teammate in stride with a precision lead, and the conference’s player of the year drilled a catch-and-shoot trey.
Davidson trailed 57-52.
The 22-point VCU advantage was turning to vapor.
The Wildcats dropped back into a tight 2-3 zone.
Then Jonathan Williams happened.
The freshman point guard waited patiently as the ball moved from side to side. With the shot clock nearing 10, Williams saw a sliver of an opening and split the top two defenders, pulled up in the lane and knocked down a jumper.
“It was big,” VCU’s Shaka Smart said of his point guard’s efforts. “I thought it was a really good adjustment by Davidson to go zone, and it threw us off for a few possessions. We got a little stagnant.”
Williams found a similar seam on the next possession and fed Mo Alie-Cox for a dunk.
“It’s always a tricky situation where when you have a lead, how aggressive you want to be, because you certainly don’t necessarily want to shoot in the first five, ten seconds of the shot clock,” Smart explained. But at the same time, you want to be aggressive.”
With Davidson’s zone softened, Treveon Graham connected on the next trip from behind the arc.
“Those two shots kind of got them feeling a little bit more confident, and it loosened our zone up,” Davidson’s Bob McKillop stated.
When Graham connected again from long range, VCU led 72-58 with 5:31 on the clock.
“It was real important,” Graham said of Williams getting into the teeth of the zone. “We worked on that a lot in practice, him getting into the lane and making plays.”
Williams finished the game with seven points, hitting the only shot he took from the field. He added five assists and two steals in 17 minutes.
“Johnny I thought overall gave us a huge, huge lift, Smart added. “JeQuan was in foul trouble, so Johnny came in and played big minutes.
“The most impressive thing he did, actually, was on the defensive end. He didn’t play perfectly, but he really defended their guys, for him, really, really well. He’s had issues with alertness in the past and staying aware and ready. Today was a good game for him in that respect. And then the way that he went to the foul line and made free throws was huge.”
Alie-Cox and Graham led VCU scored 18 apiece in VCU’s 93-73 win.
After starting 2 of 15 from the field, VCU connected on 10 of their next 13 shots and finished 28 of 57 for the day.
Kalinoski notched a game-high 19.
Davidson beat VCU 82-55 on March 5.
VCU advances to meet Dayton in Sunday’s final. It will be the Rams third straight appearance in championship in their third year in the A-10.
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