VCU rallies to beat St. John’s 75-69 in Battle 4 Atlantis

The Bears left the Bahamas with victories over No. 10 Louisville, No. 24 Michigan State and a tough VCU team. Pushed it on the break after every Baylor miss.

Ahmed Hamdy-Mohamed had a solid performance, with 14 points, going toe-to-toe with the Baylor “bigs”, keeping VCU in the game. Turns out it was a mirage.

The last time Michigan State and Baylor met up, it was for the Cotton Bowl after the 2014 season. Baylor outscored the Spartans 43-25 in the second half. The change to man-to-man extended the Bears’ pressure and rattled the young Spartans.

Baylor junior forward Johnathan Motley and sophomore guard King McClure had 15 points apiece and junior forward Terry Maston had 12.

Coach Tom Izzo said there’s been little time to fix the things that have gone wrong so far, though that could change when the schedule lightens in December.

“I thought we did a pretty good job in the first half”, LSU Coach Johnny Jones said. Baylor has had several extra hours of recovery and should be the freseher team here.

“We’d been preparing for that for a while — we put a ton into that game”, Wade said. And this turnaround was nearly insane.

“We were bigger than them in the paint and we think were tougher, ” Motley said, “so we just used that to our advantage.”.

Tim Williams had 19 points and 11 rebounds and Elijah Brown scored 16 points for the Lobos (3-1), who fell to 6-17 all-time against ACC teams. His assortment of turnarounds, jump hooks and dunks overwhelmed whomever guarded him. The Spartans don’t have anyone over 6-foot-9 and rely on Kenny Goins, a 6-foot-6 former walk-on, as a starting center. MSU would finish the half shooting 48 percent.

The Spartans open against St. John’s (2-1) in the first meeting between the programs since 1979. He hit a three to help MSU (3-3) keep momentum.

“As frustrating as it is, that’s usually what makes a team”, Mullin said.

Both teams started pulling from long range early. Wainright scored just four points but grabbed nine rebounds and came up with a pair of steals. They will play Baylor for the title.

Forward Obi Enechionyia, despite scoring only four of his 22 points in the second half, made a key 3-pointer with five minutes left for Temple (4-2). Though he benefited from some luck, his work down low was all skill and size. VCU led by eight late in the first half and was tied with about 8 minutes left in that one. That was followed by Rose’s putback, Enechionyia’s lay-in, two made free throws by Alston, and consecutive 3s from Alston and Damion Moore. The win moves Will Wade’s team to 4-1 on the season.

“I liked the way we fought back”, Motley said. That’s my fault, not theirs. With the loss, Duquesne falls to 2-4, and the road won’t get any easier the closer we get to A-10 conference play. Unfortunately, we turned the ball over in the second half and I that helped them. So far, the Shockers are showing a lot of balance with Zach Brown, Markis McDuffie and Darral Willis Jr. each averaging around 11 points to lead an offense coming off a 116-point showing – the program’s best in a game since 1988 – against Maryland-Eastern Shore. Only freshman Miles Bridges reached double figures. Eron Harris struggled to shoot for the second game in a row. That new look confounded Wichita State, and Louisville won 62-52.