Columbia, South Carolina played home to the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams as they entered the NCAA March Madness Tournament ranked No. 8 and playing host to the No. 9-seeded University of Central Florida Knights. VCU was coming off a 75-70 loss (to the Rhode Island Rams) in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Conference Championship and had endured a scary injury to junior guard Marcus Evans which turned the momentum in that game. This set up a great matchup featuring two top teams in their respective conferences colliding for the right to face Zion Williamson and the Duke Blue Devils in the tournament. The Knights prevailed though, 73-58, and moved on to face Duke coach Michael KrzyzewskiK’s No. 1 ranked team.
Early on to start the game it was a slow start on both sides.
These were two teams that were known for their defense and it was on display early as both combined shot 1-16 from the field. The Rams were suffocating the Knights, limiting their 7’6” center, Tacko Fall, from getting easy buckets and they seemed to have a solid game plan on how to make it tough on him throughout the game. But UCF started to open up and made the next 10 shots. It looked like the Black and Yellow couldn’t find a way to slow them down and it was a back-and-forth affair after both teams got the early jitters.
The game was tied at 24 toward the end of the first half and it appeared that the team who could make a run and create separation would have a big advantage going into the second half.
That’s exactly what the Knights did. They finished the half on an 8-0 run and took a 32-24 lead at halftime.
Coming into the second half the urgency that was needed for the Rams was not there and the Knights went on an 11-0 run that stretched to a 19-point lead. It looked like VCU couldn’t buy a basket for a large portion of this game and, up until that point, they hadn’t made one three-pointer. Rams guard Malik Crowfield was able to knock down their first two three-pointers but they had already dug themselves into a 20-point deficit.
VCU climbed their way back into the game with knockdown threes, stifling defense and transition baskets which has been their key to success all season. The Rams cut the lead all the way to 62-55 but that was the closest they got as the Knights finished them off with an 11-3 run to win 73-58.
The high point scoring for the Rams was Malik Crowfield with 11 points on 4-5 shooting, while the leading scorer for the Knights was guard B.J. Taylor with 15 points.
As the final seconds wound down, one could see the emotion from VCU senior forward Michael Gilmore as he came to the realization that his college basketball career was over. This was a tough, gritty, close-knit team all year and his teammates wouldn’t let him hold his head down.
Evans had some great words about his teammate.
“This dude has been a huge part of this team since the beginning,” Evans said of Gilmore. “He’s had adversity with being in the game [and] coming out of the game. But he never hung his head and he’s been the best teammate I could ever ask for.”