RICHMOND, Va. – Wednesday night’s semifinal games in the Holiday on the Hardwood Classic are in the books. New Hampshire won the first game 68-66 over Cornell, and will take on host VCU in the title game after the Rams beat Wofford 75-66.
A few thoughts from Wednesday’s games:
- Cornell isn’t far away. The Big Red lost for the sixth time by five or fewer points, which means they’ve been right there. Cornell doesn’t have the star power of a year ago, but they do have veterans who have won like Chris Wroblewski (14 points, six assists), Errick Peck (game-high 19 points) and Adam Wire (team’s leading rebounder). But they’re all in different roles than before, an adjustment they haven’t quite made yet.
- Ferg Myrick makes a difference for New Hampshire. The Wildcats’ leading scorer had a nice night with 14 points and five assists in 31 minutes. Not only was the five assists a season high, but two more than he had all season prior to Wednesday night. When he drove, he made things happen, which he showed against Rhode Island before getting ejected.
- New Hampshire will need a repeat of the effort from Chandler Rhoads on Thursday. The sophomore point guard quietly put up 10 points, eight rebounds and five assists with just one turnover. VCU is a pressing team, and UNH struggled with that against Rhode Island, so he’ll need to play well against the press with help from guys like Tyrone Conley and Jordon Bronner, the latter of whom has been erratic with the ball.
- Wofford is good, but is having trouble breaking through. A big start to the second half gave the Terriers the lead, and they were neck-and-neck with host VCU for most of the game. But as has happened in some other games against very good teams, they couldn’t pull it out late. After getting within 69-66 with 50 seconds left, the Terriers were 0-4 from the field and 0-2 from the foul line the rest of the way.
- VCU has good reserves. All season long, VCU has gotten production off the bench. Part of it is because Brandon Rozzell is like a starter but comes off the bench, but players like Rob Brandenburg and Juvonte Reddic contributed nicely in Wednesday’s win and aren’t alone. Darius Theus, who has started the last three games, has helped there at times, as have Troy Daniels and David Hinton. Head coach Shaka Smart said he would like to get one more player in the mix regularly, and there’s no reason to think they can’t based on what they have done thus far.
- Oftentimes, the consolation game at a tournament like this isn’t of much interest to anyone not connected with the two teams, unless the host school is in it. This time around, it will have two teams that have had some tough losses in Wofford and Cornell. Perhaps this game can serve as a turning point for one of the teams.
