SPORTS: UMW Throttles Chicago
Chicago shot well enough to win, the Eagles' team shot better, keeping the Maroons at arms' length most of the night on the way to an 81-73 victory.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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Editor’s Note: The Advance was not able to make the trip to Fort Wayne, Indiana, for the Eagle’s games in the NCAA basketball quarter- and semi-final games. However, we are monitoring the games from Fredericksburg and reporting the action.
Championship teams just find a way. Thursday night, the University of Mary Washington Eagles found a way.
The Maroons from the University of Chicago make their living beyond the 3-point arc, and in their quarter-final game against the Eagles they played their game, shooting 48% from the field, a respectable 31% from three-land, and winning the rebound battle.
The Eagles, by contrast, didn’t play theirs. UMW’s best player — Kye Robinson — played one of his worst games of the year. Averaging better than 26 points per game on the season, Robinson shot just 4-11 from the field and at times looked out of control on the court trying to force plays that weren’t there.
But championship teams find a way.
And Thursday night that way ran through the Eagles’ Jay Randall.
Randall went 10 for 15 from the floor, draining shots whether Maroons were glued to him, or standing in the way of a dunk that Randall made over Chicago’s best player, Shane Regan. That dunk over Regan’s outreached arms electrified the announcers calling the game.
He wasn’t the only Eagle stepping up.
Hasan Hammad banked in a big 3 early in the game that seemed to surprise Hammad and sparked the Eagles’ 9-0 run that put them on the path to a 14-point lead at the half.
Jadon Burgess also made the most of his shots, going 3-5, with two of the three being from behind the arc.
Chicago repeatedly clawed back into the game. The team was hot early in the second half, cutting the Eagles’ lead to five with just over 15 minutes to play in the game.
Shots by Ulysses Young and Hammad pushed UMW’s lead back to 10, a margin they mostly held to until less than 2 minutes to play when Chicago’s Eamonn Kenah pulled the Maroons’ within four at 71 - 75.
The Eagles closed the door by drilling four consecutive free throws. A fitting touch to a night where the Eagles shot 100% from the free-throw line on the night.
It may have been the Eagles’ best team shooting performance of the year, showing that even when Robinson isn’t on his game, UMW has the tools they need to win.
And in tournament play, that’s what matters.
Finding a way when you have to.
On Saturday, they’ll face defending Division III national champion Trinity (Connecticut) in the national semifinal game. It will be shown on ESPN+.
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