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VCU DOWNS RICHMOND 80-77
2-26-00
Junior guard Bo Jones (Richmond, Va.) scored a career-high 35 points and junior guard LaMar Taylor (Richmond, Va.) made a driving lay-up and subsequent free throw with seven-tenths of a second remaining as Virginia Commonwealth defeated Richmond 80-77 on Saturday night at the ALLTEL Pavilion at the Stuart C. Siegel Center.

An ALLTEL Pavilion record crowd of 7,694, the second sellout in the last five home games, watched Jones put on a shooting clinic. The shooting guard connected on 12-of-15 attempts from the field, including six-of-eight from three-point range, while tying a season-high with five assists.

Taylor was equally impressive. In addition to converting the game winning three-point play with less than a second remaining on the clock, the point guard scored nine points and dished out nine assists for the Rams.

As a team, Virginia Commonwealth made 29-of-50 attempts for 58.0 percent field goal shooting. The Rams are 7-0 in the last two seasons when connecting on at least 50 percent of their attempts from the floor and Virginia Commonwealth head coach Mack McCarthy is 100-1 when his teams reach the 50 percent plateau.

Virginia Commonwealth opened the game on fire, scoring the first six points of the contest and building a 32-13 lead with 8:04 left in the first half. Richmond promptly responded by scoring 18 consecutive points before the Rams pushed the lead back to five points, 41-36, at intermission.

The second half featured six lead changes and four ties as the teams battled back and forth. After Virginia Commonwealth tied the game at 60 with 10:20 to play, the Spiders went on a 15-4 run to take a 75-64 lead with 6:22 to play.

The Rams countered with 11 consecutive points and tied the game with 3:01 to play when Jones connected on a three-point field goal from the left wing. Jones scored seven of the Rams 11 points in that 3:21 period.

After Greg Stevenson scored two of his 20 points to put Richmond up with 1:11 to play, Jones scored his seventh straight point for the Rams, a driving lay-up with 12.2 seconds left to tie the game.

Richmond had the ball and looked for a chance to win, but sophomore forward Shawn Hampton (Baltimore, Md.) drew a charge with 6.1 seconds left to set the stage for Taylor's heroics.

Taylor took the ball down the right side of the lane, drew contact, and as he was falling away from the basket, floated a high-arching shot over a Richmond defender and into the basket. He made the free throw to give the Rams their second victory over the Spiders in their last three meetings.

This was the sixth time this season Virginia Commonwealth has rallied from a double-digit deficit to win a game and the third time it has won a game in which the Rams have trailed in the final 30 seconds of the game or in overtime.

Richmond fell to 16-11 overall and 11-5 in conference play. Virginia Commonwealth, winners of three straight games, are 14-12 overall and 7-8 in Colonial Athletic Association play. The Rams will conclude the regular season on Tuesday when they travel to American. With the victory, the Rams are guaranteed the fifth-seed in the CAA tournament. The Rams will open with the fourth-seed N.C.-Wilmington on Saturday in the first quarterfinal game. Game time at the Richmond Coliseum is set for 2:30 p.m.

This page was last updated
03/02/00 at 01:06 PM

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