In an atmosphere embodying the best rivalry in the CAA, the Monarchs celebrated a triumphant 73-70 victory over the despised Virginia Commonwealth University Rams. The Monarchs won on Senior Day in front of a ruckus crowd of 8,424 screaming fans inside the Ted. With the victory the Monarchs concluded a perfect season at home and pushed their home winning streak to 23 games.
The Monarchs were led on Senior Day by senior forward
Gerald Lee, who paced the Monarchs with a game high of 21 points. He was joined inside by Frank Hassell, who got 17 points while hauling down 6 rebounds. “I knew if we were going to win this game I had to make some plays overall on the offensive and defensive end,” said Lee, after shooting 9-14 from the field. The Monarchs got off to a hot start, lead by Lee as he scored 5 of the first 11 points for the Monarchs. It looked like it would have been a showdown of the two highly touted big men: Lee and VCU’s Larry Sanders.
However, at the 10:43 minute mark and the Monarchs up by 2 points. Sanders picked up his second foul and sat during the rest of the half. Sanders was unable to get into the flow of the game and finished the game with only 6 points in 24 minutes.
After Sanders headed to the bench the Monarchs went inside to both Lee and Hassell, who were both aggressive on the paint. The duo combined for 25 first half points on 16 shoot attempts while the rest of the Monarchs only took 14 shots.
VCU stayed close in the first half without Sanders as they were able to get contributions from many different options. Guard Brandon Rozzell led the Rams with 7 points going into halftime. Although the Rams only trailed by four at halftime, it was clear that the absence of Sanders had an impact on the half. The Monarchs out-rebounded the Rams 20-9 in the half including 8-1 on the offensive glass. “I thought we did everything we wanted to do, they just killed us on the backboards,” said junior Ram guard Joey Rodriguez.
The second half was a seesaw battle as neither team could pull away. The Monarchs led by as many as 6 points in the second half and looked poised to put a little distance between the teams after Sanders picked up his third foul.
However, led by 11 second half points from sophomore guard Bradford Burgess, the Rams built a lead of four with just over 5 minutes to play.
From there the Monarchs defense tightened and made it tough for the Rams down the stretch. “We were having a lot of
mistakes on defense, but thank God that in the last five minutes we buckled up,” said Lee.
With the Monarchs trailing by just 1 point and with just over two minutes to go, junior forward Ben Finney let a three ball
fly from the wing and gave the Monarchs a 2 point lead. The noise was deafening and the top almost blew off the Ted. With the score 71-70, Darius James drove toward the basket and put up a layup that was swatted away by Sanders. Rodriguez then saved the loose ball from going out of bounds to Sanders.
Perhaps the hardest working Monarch, Finney stripped Sanders of the ball, and forced the Rams to foul.The Monarchs, after a free throw by Hassell, were up 3 points with just over 6 seconds to play. The Rams had one last look at a three by Burgess, but his shot came up short and the celebration began. “I told the kids today, that we were going to cut some nets down tonight,” said coach Blaine Taylor.
After the final horn sounded and the Monarchs prepared to start cutting down the net, Taylor told the boisterous crowd,
“We are only going to cut one net down and cut down two next week,” referring to the CAA Tournament.
The Monarchs will open the CAA Tournament as the number one seed and will play the quarterfinal game Saturday, March 6.
