The crowd packed in the Murray Center rose to their feet. The tension was palpable as the shot clock and game clock wound down simultaneously. With the Anchormen trailing, 78-79, with their season on the line, as they had done in clutch situations all season long, RIC put the ball in the hands of their dynamic scorer, junior guard Antone Gray.
With ice water running through his veins, Gray fired and hit a deep 3-pointer to give the Anchormen an 81-79 lead with 1:06 left in the Little East Conference Championship Game.
Western Connecticut, now trailing by two points, quickly got the ball to sophomore forward Gary Robinson in the paint on the ensuing possession, where he was fouled by RIC junior Captain Darius Debnam. Robinson knocked down the first free throw to cut the lead to a single point, 81-80, but before he could attempt the second free throw, RIC Head Coach Bob Walsh called a timeout to try to ice Robinson.
Walsh’s strategy worked, as Robinson missed the second free throw, but the rebound popped out to Western Connecticut senior guard Tyshawn Gillespie beyond the three-point line. Gillespie gave the ball up to sophomore backcourt mate DaQuan Brooks who stepped up for a 3-pointer, but at the last second, saw Robinson open on the baseline cutting to the basket. Gray cut in front of Robinson, who was forced to alter his body, and missed the easy layup.
RIC senior guard Jake Grimes ended up with the loose ball on the rebound and was tied up for a jump ball. The possession arrow favored the top-seeded Anchormen, who were able to inbound the ball to Gray with 0.9 seconds left and avoid being fouled to win the Little East Conference Championship Tournament, 81-80, over the second-seeded Western Connecticut Colonials.
As Little East Conference regular season and conference tournament champions, the Rhode Island College men’s basketball team advances to make its fourth-straight appearance in the NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament.
“Winning a championship is a terrific accomplishment for this team,” Walsh said. “We have grown so much since the season started and really learned to trust each other. Winning both the regular season and tournament championships is incredible for such a young group.”
RIC has played in the LEC Tournament championship game in each of the past four seasons under Walsh, and this year’s win marks the third time RIC has come away with the title. The Anchormen raise their record to 20-7, reaching the 20-win plateau for the fourth-straight season.
Gray, who hit the game-winning shot on consecutive nights, first in the semifinal win, 74-72, over fourth-seeded UMass Dartmouth and in the LEC Championship Game, 81-80, over West Conn., was named the LEC Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. In the two wins, he averaged 12.5 points and 4.5 assists. Gray finished the title game victory with 12 points and six assists.
Sophomore forward Mason Choice and Grimes each led the Anchormen in scoring with 16 points apiece. Debnam contributed 12 points and junior forward Carl Lee rounded out the RIC batch of five players in double figures with two spectacular right-handed dunks on the way to 11 points of his own.
West Conn. sophomore center Leroy Mayers gave the Anchormen all they could handle in the post, as Mayers was a dominant one-man wrecking crew, shooting 14-for-19 from the field, scoring a game-high 28-points, and cleaning up 13 rebounds, as well. Brooks had 16 points for the Colonials, but didn’t have his best game of the season from the field, shooting 6-for-21 in the loss to RIC.
The game went back and forth for the entire contest, with neither team able to gain much of an advantage. There were seven ties in the first half alone, and the lead changed hands four times, but eventually RIC was able to build a game-high, eight-point lead, 44-36, with 42 seconds left on a 3-pointer from junior guard Nick Manson. Two free throws from West Conn. junior center John Phillips pulled the Colonials within six, 44-38, at the half.
The Colonials opened the second half on a 22-8 run to build an eight-point, 60-52 lead with 13:01 remaining. With the momentum having swung fully in the favor of West Conn., Walsh called a timeout. After the timeout, the Anchormen brought the stunned home crowd at the Murray Center to life once again, going on a 16-8 run of their own to tie the game back up at 68 apiece with just over eight minutes remaining.
The two teams battled back and forth for the remainder of the title bout, as neither could pull away. Manson gave RIC a four-point lead, 73-69, with another 3-pointer, but the Colonials would battle back to tie the game once again. After a driving layup from Choice, Mayers tied the game at 75-75 with 4:46 remaining. After two free throws from West Conn.’s Robinson, Debnam nailed a clutch 3-pointer to put the Anchormen up 78-77 with 3:16 remaining. Mayers gave the Colonials their final lead of the second half, at 79-78, but Gray’s heroics would once again save the Anchormen in the final seconds.
“This is so special to me I just don’t know how to describe it right now. This championship is for Jake Grimes. I owed him one – we played together in high school. We didn’t get one with him there, so I owed this season, this championship to him,” Gray said in a post-game interview with RIC Radio WXIN. “I cried for two hours in the locker room after we lost last year to UMass Dartmouth in the LEC championship game. This win is so special to me, to come back after missing 10 games this season, I owed this to my teammates to come out here and win this game for them.”
RIC will open up the Division III National Championship Tournament on the road at Middlebury, Vt., against Rutgers-Newark. The Anchormen have a chance to be a Cinderella story of the tournament, as they could potentially face off against Middlebury, the No. 3 ranked team in the country this season, in a potential second round matchup.
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