Two games are in the books. In the opener, 8-seed Dayton rallied from a seven-point halftime deficit to easily take out 9-seed UNC-Charlotte, 81-63. Line of the Game honors go to Flyers guard Brian Roberts:
Name |
Min |
FG |
3pt |
FT |
OR |
TR |
A |
TO |
S |
Blk |
PF |
Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
B. Roberts |
33 |
7-10 |
4-5 |
6-7 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
24 |
In the second game, 5-seed Fordham barely held off a game 12-seed Richmond to escape with a 63-61 win. In a game with seven ties and 13 lead changes, the Rams got the last advantage on a layup-and-one by Marcus Stout with 30 seconds remaining.
At the other end of the floor, Fordham jammed Richmond into calling a timeout with eight seconds to play, then Kevin Anderson got a piece of a shot that landed in Rams forward Sebastian Greene's hands. Greene was fouled with 0.4 seconds to play, made the first free throw and purposely missed the second to end the game.
Line of the game, though, goes to one of the guys on the losing end. Richmond's Dan Geriot had a career high in scoring, scored half his team's total points in the first half, and set the high mark for individual scoring for Richmond this season with this effort:
Name |
Min |
FG |
3pt |
FT |
OR |
TR |
A |
TO |
S |
Blk |
PF |
Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
D. Geriot |
25 |
12-15 |
3-3 |
0-0 |
1 |
5 |
0 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
27 |
Fordham won the game despite shooting 1-of-10 from three-point range. Marcus Stout was the main player responsible for that, as he made exactly none of seven attempts from beyond the arc.
But the Rams shot 52.2 percent for the game because they converted 23 of 36 2-point attempts. Bryan Dunston was the Rams' leading scored with 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting, all from inside the arc (and most from inside the paint, too) and he did not go to the line at all. Stout was 7-of-8 from 2-point range and 3-of-4 at the free throw line.
The announced crowd for the afternoon session was 4,406 fans. Props to the 10 or so Fordham students who stood together -- including one in a Lucha Libre wrestler's mask -- as well as the loud Dayton band. Richmond, for whatever reason, did not bring a band (to round things out, Charlotte did).
There were already a good few St. Joe's and Temple shirts scattered among the crowd when the second game ended, so it looks like there could be a big crowd tonight.
