Sports

Daniels, VCU deny UMass upset, advance to A-10 final

As difficult as it is to prepare for VCU in the regular season, just imagine how hard it must be when you only have 16 hours to get ready for Havoc.

That’s what Derek Kellogg and UMass had to deal with before their semi-inal matchup with the Rams Saturday afternoon, but VCU ultimately pulled out the win, advancing to the Atlantic 10 tournament finals and a matchup with No. 16 St. Louis.

“It was a hard-fought game,” VCU head coach Shaka Smart said. “We found a way to get it done and I think we got some stops in the second half and held them to just 28 points. But our guys aren’t satisfied, we have another game in 24 hours.”

For a while it looked like Barclays Center might see the Atlantic 10 tournament’s first major upset.

“I was proud of the way our guys came out and played with very little time to prepare,” UMass head coach Derek Kellogg said.

UMass led by as many as nine points in the first half and was up 23-15 before Troy Daniels shot the Rams back into the game and gave VCU its first lead since Juvonte Reddic scored the game’s first points.

Daniels hit three straight treys to bring VCU from down eight to up one in a matter of 64 seconds.

“It’s a confidence thing,” Daniels said. “When you come up the court, you have that VCU on your chest, you feel like you can do anything. Every time I shoot I think it’s going in.”

But Daniels was not done for the night.

After Williams briefly gave UMass the lead by sinking a layup to open the second half, Daniels handed it right back to VCU by drilling yet another trey. The Rams would not trail again for the rest of the game.

“[Daniels] is just a great shooter,” Smart said. “He’s the best shooter I’ve ever coached.”

Playing for the third straight day in front of a hometown crowd in Brooklyn, Williams scored 12 of his 18 points in the second half as he tried to will UMass to an upset win.

“We came out today and we fought, fought and fought,” Williams said. “We just came up short.”

Williams hit a layup to cut VCU’s lead to 58-56 with 5:23 remaining but in a nine-second span, Weber converted a three-point play, swiped the ball from Freddie Riley and passed to a wide-open Daniels for a trey to extend the lead back to eight.

“It was just being in the right spot at the right time,” Weber said. “I just saw it was one-on-one so I attacked the rim.”

But VCU’s defensive pressure was just too much for the Minutemen to overcome. The Rams forced UMass to commit 24 turnovers.

“They sped us up a little bit,” Williams said. “[We needed to] stay poised, take control of the game, slow things down.”

Shaka Smart’s club will go against No. 16 St. Louis in the tournament finals. The Rams lost to the Billikens 76-62 on the road last month.