A10: Charlotte Tops URI On FTs In Final Second
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- The game was tied. There were only eight seconds left. Yet Michael Gerrity seemed to take the ball up the court a little slowly. But with the seconds ticking down, Gerrity slashed to the hoop.
He was blocked -- but drew contact. Gerrity was just as calm was he was bringing the ball up the court, draining a pair of free throws to give Charlotte a 75-73 win. The first lead of the second half for the 49ers came with just three-tenths of a second left.
The Rams led by as many as nine in the second half but couldn't put a pesky Charlotte team away. URI pulled back ahead by six after Jimmy Baron converted all his free throws after Charles Dewhurst fouled him on a three-point attempt. Later, Will Daniels put the Rams up five with a free throw but Leemire Goldwire drained a long-distance three from the top of the key to close the 49ers to 70-68. After a pair of Baron free throws, Goldwire hit another three to close the gap to 1 yet again.
With URI up two, senior Atlantic 10 first teamer Will Daniels fouled out. Charlie Coley calmly drained a pair of free throws to finally tie the score with 37 seconds left. URI called two timeouts to set up the next possession but Parfait Bitee was called for an offensive foul for pushing off with his forearm with 8.2 seconds left, leading to the final play.
Stats and commentary on the final 10 seconds after the jump.
The Rams' Jimmy Baron scored 25 points to lead all scorers; he had four threes and converted all his FTs after being fouled on another three attempt. Charlotte guard Leemire Goldwire, who missed 5 of his first 8 shots, finished with 23 points on 8-of-16 shooting.
Rhode Island shot just 6-for-21 from three-point range. Charlotte went 8-for-18 from distance, but hit 5-for-8 in the second half. Ian Andersen (another good name award winner) only took two shots, but they were both made threes in the second half.
Rhode Island's defense held Lamont Mack to just a point. Team stats were relatively even across the board.
The final 10 seconds were certainly controversial. Parfait Bitee called for an offensive foul at one end, Keith Cothran called for a defensive one at the other. Rams coach Jim Baron said postgame the refs "took it out of the players' hands at the end." The entire game was incredibly physical; fouls could have been called on pretty much every play. The contact at the end that led to Michael Gerrity's game-winning free throws looked fairly clear from press row, though, and in the end all that matters is it was called.
