Senior forward Vince Williams Jr. narrowly missed a triple-double and hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 25.3 seconds remaining to give VCU a 64-62 win at crosstown rival Richmond Saturday.
Williams scored a career-high 22 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, dished out eight assists and blocked two shots in the game. He connected on 9-of-13 attempts from the floor, including 3-of-6 from 3-point range.
Junior forward Hason Ward turned in his best performance of the season for VCU (13-6, 6-2 A-10). He tied a career-high with 14 points and collected 10 rebounds to secure his third career double-double
Senior guard KeShawn Curry added 10 points and four rebounds for the Black and Gold
Grant Golden paced Richmond (13-8, 4-4 A-10) with 18 points.
With the score tied at 61-61, Williams retrieved a loose ball from the VCU backcourt and pulled up to drain a 3-pointer from the top of the 3-point arc. On Richmond’s final possession, the Spiders went the length of the floor in 3.1 seconds, but Jacob Gilyard’s running jumper at the final horn missed off the right side of the rim.
VCU was forced to play the final 3:17 without sophomore point guard Ace Baldwin Jr., who fouled out. Gilyard hit a pair of free throws to trim VCU’s lead to 59-57, and Richmond tied the game at 59-59 on a putback by Andre Gustavson with 2:22 left. But Williams hit a pull-up jumper from 17 feet on VCU’s possession to keep the Spiders at bay and set the stage for his final heroics.
VCU shot .509 (28-of-55) from the field in the contest and owned a 37-36 rebounding edge. The Rams also held Richmond to .355 (22-of-62) in the contest, including 4-of-22 from 3-point range.
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