BY PAUL GOTHAM
PITTSBURGH, PA — JeQuan Lewis scored a pair of late buckets in regulation, and the VCU Rams went on to defeat the Richmond Spiders in overtime 87-77, Saturday at PPG Paints Arena in front of 6,886.
With the win, VCU advanced to Sunday’s Atlantic 10 championship, the Rams fifth straight appearance in the title game.
Lewis connected on a 3-pointer with :25 remaining in regulation to send the game into extra time.
“I had shooting in my mind before the play even started,” Lewis said. “I wanted to put that on my shoulders and my teammates, I felt like my teammates wanted me to, as well.”
The senior guard finished with a team-high 18 points on 5-of-12 shooting from the floor. He combined with Mo Alie-Cox on a pick and roll in overtime and followed with a dish to Justin Tillman for a dunk as VCU outscored the Spiders 13-2 to open the extra period.
Lewis handed out five assists and converted all six of his free throw attempts including three late in the overtime.
Ahmed Hamdy Mohamed sparked VCU early with a 10-2 run midway through the first half, and the Rams took a 36-31 lead over the Richmond Spiders into the locker room at halftime.
Hamdy Mohamed converted one of two free throws and followed with spectacular block of a Khwan Fore dunk attempt at the other end of the floor. The senior forward delivered an assist to Doug Brooks and scored in the lane for a 16-10 VCU advantage.
Malik Crowfield hit a three to push the lead to nine at 19-10.
VCU took its largest lead of the half with 5:34 to go when Alie-Cox finished a jump hook in the lane.
Hamdy Mohamed grabbed five rebounds in nine minutes of playing time. Tillman hauled in a game-high 14 as VCU outrebounded Richmond, 45-29.
“We outrebounded them by 16 and scored 56 points in the paint,” VCU coach Will Wade said. “That’s our formula. With the way we offensive rebound the ball and the way we play, if we just get the thing on the backboard, we are pretty good and we finally just got the ball in the paint and got the ball on the backboard.”
Richmond responded before going into the locker room.
Atlantic 10 Player of the Year, T.J. Cline scored in the post, and conference Rookie of the Year De’Monte Buckingham drilled a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer from the top of the arc to cut the margin to five at 36-31 before the end of the half.
Richmond stayed hot early in the second, and a ShawnDre’ Jones baseline floater gave the Spiders their first since 7-5 at 42-41.
Khwan Fore converted a pair of free throws to give Richmond its largest lead of the game at 57-51.
VCU’s Samir Doughty, though, scored six straight to knot the game at 57 with 7:19 remaining in regulation.
The teams exchanged leads twice over the final seven minutes of the game before Lewis got ahead of the defense for a layup to tie the score at 68.
Nick Sherod gave Richmond a 71-68 lead when he took an inside/out feed from Jones and nailed a 3-ball.
Buckingham led all scorers with 25. The freshman guard hit 9 of 14 shots from the floor and four of seven behind the arc. Nick Sherod added 15 for the Spiders. Fore had 13 while Jones and Cline and Cline chipped in 11 and 10 respectively.
Doughty ended the game with 17. Ali-Cox had 15. Tillman scored 11. Johnny Williams handed out a game-high seven assists.
Cline picked up his fourth foul with 5:53 remaining in the game.
“They are a different team when he is in foul trouble, no doubt about it,” Wade said. “Their whole offense runs through him. He’s a point-center. Their whole offense runs through him. You know, no knock on their other guys, but it was a pretty significant drop off when you go from the Player of the Year in the league to some of their other guys.”
VCU (26-7) beat Richmond (20-12) twice during the regular season and is 5-0 against their cross-town rivals in A-10 championship play. The game was the first overtime semifinal since 2009 when Richmond beat Xavier 89-85.
VCU will play Rhode Island in Sunday’s championship game. A 12:30 pm tipoff is scheduled. The teams met once this year with Rhode Island winning 69-59.
VCU is 12-3 all-time at the Atlantic 10 championship and won the 2015 championship.
The last team to reach five straight A-10 title games was UMass, 1992-1996.
VCU has won 24 or more games in each of the last 11 seasons. Kansas is the only other school to 11 straight 24-win seasons. The Rams are 45-7 in two seasons under coach Will Wade when scoring 70 or more points and 29-1 when scoring 80.
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