July Basketball? Yes, please. Three A-10 alumni teams are competing in this year’s Basketball Tournament, a 5-on-5 competition among professional basketball players who are competing to win 2 million dollars, and two of those teams took the court last night. VCU’s Ram Nation and Davidson’s Cat Pack both played their first round games in Charlotte; the Rams rallied to move on to the next round while the Cats came up just short.
VCU went down by 15 going into the first half against its opponent the NC Prodigal Sons. Team Ram Nation would go down by as many as 20 in the second half, but VCU didn’t give in. The Rams started igniting a comeback fueled by Bradford Burgess and Brandon Rozzell who ended with 24 and 22 points respectively. A putback by Burgess late in the contest would give the Rams the lead once and for all, and they’d go ahead and ice it on the free throw line to take an 85-80 victory. The Rams would go on to face the winner of Davidson’s Cat Pack and The Kings of the South.
FINAL: @VCURamNation defeats NC Prodigal Sons 85-80 pic.twitter.com/oRktQr3H8d
— TBT (@thetournament) July 10, 2016
Davidson’s Cat Pack got off to a great start, going up by as many as 14 in the early-going before the Kings of The South stormed back and took a double digit lead of their own in the first half. Despite the back-and-forth play, Davidson trailed by just 1 going into the half. The second half though, belonged exclusively to the Kings of the South. They’d take a double digit lead off some Wildcat miscues and never look back. Davidson’s Cat Pack fell 92-113, and the Kings of the South will move on to face VCU Ram Nation in the 2nd round of the tournament.
Though Davidson has been eliminated, VCU moves on to the second round, and the third A-10 team in this tournament, La Salle’s 20th and Olney, has yet to play. They’ll take the court for the first time on July 16th when they face off against Philly foe North Broad Street Bullies (Temple Alumni). You thought you’d have to wait until November for A-10 basketball, but it appears Christmas has come early this year.
