Rams rout Virginia in First Four, advance to matchup with Texas
DAYTON, OHIO >> Rams fans have Carolina on their minds. And a sweet victory over Virginia to thank for it.
The CSU men’s basketball team will face Texas in Charlotte, N.C., on Thursday after rolling to a dominant 67-42 win over Virginia in a First Four rout in the NCAA Tournament at the UD Arena on Tuesday night.
Behind forward Joel Scott’s 23 points and 11 rebounds and a defense that had held the Cavaliers to a 25% shooting clip from the floor, CSU won its first game in the Big Dance in 11 years.
Rams guard Nique Clifford finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds and six assists for the Rams (25-10).
It was the program’s first win at the Big Dance since March 21, 2013, when the eighth-seeded Rams under Larry Eustachy knocked off Missouri, 84-72, in Lexington, Ky. That team lost to topseeded Louisville two days later, 82-56, to finish with a 26-9 record.
After a shaky first four minutes, coach Niko Medved’s Rams grabbed the game by the thorax and never let go. Virginia, behind forward Jordan Minor, appeared to climb off the mat a bit with a 4-0 run that trimmed the CSU lead to 44-29. But on the subsequent Rams possession, Cartier squirted free in the top right part of the arc, let an open 3-point attempt fly, and saw it bounce off the front of the rim and in to put the 10 seed up 18. Scott’s two free throws 40 seconds later extended that lead to 49-29 with 8:56 to play. The burly forward pushed that cushion to 22 points — 53-31 — on a layup with 7:16 left in the contest.
Over one stretch at the end the first half and the first four minutes of the
second, Virginia was scoreless for 12:43 and missed 19 straight field-goal attempts.
Befitting a sluggish, sloglike UVA game, the tilt went more than five minutes before a team reached four points — the Cavs took a 4-2 lead on a Ryan Dunn jumper.
But the basket opened up for the Rams not long after that. CSU strung together a methodical 8-0 run, capped by Clifford’s trey from the left corner with 12:33 to go until halftime.
Four minutes later, Virginia was 5 for 16 from the floor, while the Rams were 8 for 16. With two minutes until the break, the Hoos were shooting at a 20% clip (5 for 25), as part of a scoring drought of 9:20 to close the half.
Despite some misses underneath early, CSU was able to finally get looks
DAYTON, OHIO >> Wagner kicked off March Madness with the first NCAA Tournament win in program history, getting 21 points from Melvin Council Jr. and holding off a late rally by Howard to win 71-68 in the First Four on Tuesday night.
The Northeast Conference champion Seahawks (17-15) advanced as the No. 16 seed in the West Region and will play top seed North Carolina on Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Howard trailed by 17 points early in the second half but went on a late 14-2 run, closing within 69-68 on Bryce Harris’ layup with 18 seconds left. After Julian Brown hit a pair of free throws for Wagner, Howard attempted three 3-pointers in the last 6 seconds but missed them all.
Brown finished with 15 points for the Seahawks, who made their only previous NCAA Tournament appearance in 2003 — one year before their second-year coach, Donald Copeland, made the first of his two appearances in the tourney as a player for Seton Hall.
down low and, more importantly, cash in on them. Scott used his physicality to win position down low and
grind his way to a teamhigh 10 points at the break, while the acumen of Clifford off the dribble (seven
Minor 3-4 1-2 7, Beekman 4-16 7-7 15, Dunn 2-5 1-2 5, Mckneely 2-13 0-0 6, Murray 0-3 0-0 0, Groves 1-8 0-4 3, Rohde 0-2 0-0 0, Buchanan 1-1 0-0 2, Harris 0-2 2-2 2, Bond 0-1 0-0 0, Gertrude 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 14-56 11-17 42.
Halftime: Colorado St; 27-14; 3-Point Goals: Colorado St; 5-14 (Cartier 2-3, Lake 1-2, Stevens 1-2, Clifford 1-4, Kya. Evans 0-1, Palmer 0-1, Strong 0-1), Virginia 3-17 (Mckneely 2-6, Groves 1-4, Dunn 0-1, Harris 0-1, Murray 0-1, Rohde 0-1, Beekman 0-3); Rebounds: Colorado St; 43 (Scott 11), Virginia 21 (Dunn 5); Assists: Colorado St; 13 (Clifford 6), Virginia 6 (Beekman 4); Total Fouls: Colorado St; 15, Virginia 15.
points, eight rebounds at the half) helped the Rams outscore Virginia by a margin of 18-4 in the paint.
Virginia came into the Dance ranked 193rd in the country by Kenpom.com in offensive efficiency.
And the Cavaliers certainly lived down to that ranking, as the Rams held them to their lowest-scoring half of the season at 14 points.