The Upset: 82-78 (OT) vs. No. 6 North Carolina
Next Up: Illinois Fighting Illini
It’s hard to believe, but Wednesday was the 10-year anniversary of what had been VCU’s most recent victory in the NCAA tournament.
And by halftime against North Carolina, we were already formulating this team’s obituary in our heads. It didn’t get any better in the first five minutes after the intermission, down 56-37 and looking deader than disco against a UNC team that was starting to seem OK without Caleb Wilson after all.
However, the Rams closed out regulation on a 38-19 run before prevailing in an overtime period that sure looked like a golden goal situation as both teams missed shot after shot for the first few minutes.
After a regular season in which they went 0-5 against teams who would have gotten an at-large bid if needed, they finally figured out how to win a big one, led by Terrance Hill Jr. playing 40 minutes and scoring 34 points off the bench.
It was a career-high for the sophomore, but it also didn’t feel like anything new from him. He was already the sixth-man extraordinaire leading the team in both points and assists and averaging 16.2 points in his first five games of March. He just honed things in a good bit more than usual with a remarkable second half against the Tar Heels.
It’s one thing to stage a wild comeback against short-handed North Carolina.
Can the Rams now go out and upset Illinois, too?
Well, probably not. The Illini are just about exponentially better on offense than Wilson-less UNC, and it’s hard to envision a scenario in which that team lets VCU hang around in a game that’s 75-75 at the end of regulation. And VCU was averaging 71.2 points in its final five games heading into the dance, so a 90-point explosion would be a wee bit out of character here.
That Illinois defense isn’t great, though, and VCU did have a handful of 100+ point performances during nonconference play. Maybe the Rams can re-capture that lightning in a bottle.
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