By PAUL GOTHAM
BROOKLYN — Treveon Graham‘s facial expression hinted at it. Shaka Smart erased any doubt.
With the Atlantic 10 Championship on the line the VCU Rams went into their bag of tricks and did something out of character. Score one for sleight of hand.
“We had to change something up,” Smart said after VCU defeated Dayton, 71-65 to claim the 2015 Atlantic 10 Championship. “That’s not what we do, but it did allow us to get a crucial stop.”
Clinging to a two-point lead with 1:13 remaining in Sunday’s Atlantic 10 Championship game at the Barclays Center, VCU came out of a timeout and put their trademark Havoc defense aside and played zone. The effect was just enough to disrupt Dayton.
Doug Brooks tipped a pass and led JeQuan Lewis into the open court for a layup. VCU led 63-59 with 54 seconds to go.
“We needed to do something different,” a smiling Treveon Graham said with a sly wink. “We practiced zone right before going into the tournament in case we needed to throw it out there. It worked.”
Call it ruse, chicanery, artifice. Graham knew VCU caught Dayton off-guard.
“They flipped it right there,” Dayton’s Archie Miller stated. “It was a game‑changing play a little bit just in terms of getting a two‑possession lead.”
If the game was chess, VCU surrounded UD’s king, and the path to escape narrowed to a sliver.
That VCU went zone was unthinkable at one point this season. Even after the Rams lost their starting point guard and, Briante Weber, earlier this season, Smart insisted VCU would not change. Playing zone was not in the Rams future.
Maybe the sixth-year coach had a situation like Sunday in mind when he made that declaration. Maybe he didn’t. It doesn’t matter. Smart showed true gamesmanship. In doing so, he put aside the advice of one of his assistants and went with instincts.
“There’s a guy on our staff named Jeremy Ballard who I think is terrific,” Smart said. “He hates zone. So whenever I think about going zone, he talks me out of it.”
In a game where Dayton had 70 possessions, no one trip down the floor can have too great an impact. But this one made a difference. Moments later, UD cut the deficit to two with 10.6 seconds remained.
“That was a good decision on their part to flip defenses,” Miller acknowledged. “We had the play called. Just didn’t execute it.”
After the teams traded shifts in momentum, it appeared the Dayton had the decisive rally in their sights.
Scoochie Smith drove the paint on back-to-back possessions. Then the sophomore point guard fed Dyshawn Pierre with a drop pass for three from the top of the key. Jordan Sibert converted a pair of free throws. The game stood tied with 1:46 left on the clock.
A VCU double-digit advantage had evaporated.
“Scoochie was ripping us up in in the pick‑and‑roll action and scoring at will,” Smart explained. “So we had to change something up.”
Seeds of the decision were sewn when VCU dropped to a five seed, and four wins in four days would be required for an A-10 title.
“We worked on zone on Monday and Tuesday of last week, because we knew we were going to have to play four games in four days, and we thought maybe we could play some zone to conserve some energy,” Smart noted. “We didn’t really play that much this weekend. I think we played it one other game for a possession or two.”
Dyshawn Pierre fueled an 11-0 run as Dayton took an early 18-12 advantage. Graham capped a 10-0 response with a pull-up three pointer from the top of the key. VCU led 22-18. The Rams scored the last six points of the first stanza with Lewis drilling a deep trey just before the horn sounded. Graham came out of the locker room and dialed up another three ball. When Terry Larrier found the measure from long range, VCU had its largest lead of the day at 39-28.
Graham, the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, led all scorers with 20 points.
The title was VCU’s first in their third year of existence in the A-10. In two previous attempts, Smart and the Rams fell short in the championship game.
“We were the 2‑seed each of the last two years. We really liked our chances. We felt good about our opportunity, but we came up short. And I think in both those games, the other team out‑played us, Saint Louis and Saint Joe’s the last couple of years. The one thing we wanted to fix and do better was have a higher level of resolve and be able to respond within the game. I thought we did a better job of that.”
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