Via: TimesDispatch.com
By Tim Pearrell
Photo courtesy of Alexa Welch Edlund
Brandon Rozzell and Jamar Abrams will talk about this one for a while.
The former Highland Springs High teammates played major roles in front of their hometown folks last night, but Rozzell finished with the upper hand as Virginia Commonwealth stormed back to beat East Carolina 82-74 at the Siegel Center.
Rozzell, along with Joey Rodriguez, fueled a late Rams surge. Down by six points with 7:42 to play, VCU (8-2) outscored East Carolina 19-5 down the stretch.
Abrams nailed a 3-pointer and banked in an alley-oop pass in transition to give East Carolina (5-8) a 67-61 lead with 9:51 left.
The Pirates still had a 69-63 margin when Rodriguez started an 8-0 surge with a 3-pointer. Jamie Skeen’s follow shot and Rozzell’s 3-pointer put the Rams ahead 71-69.
East Carolina took one more lead, 74-73, but Rozzell hit another trey to put the Rams ahead for good.
Rozzell, finished with 15 points. Abrams had a career-high 26 points on 10-of-15 shooting.
Larry Sanders had a career-high 23 points and nine rebounds for VCU. Rodriguez added 19 points.
In a back-and-forth first half, VCU took a 44-42 lead to the locker room on Rozzell’s runner that rolled in with 1 second left.
The Rams had opened a 37-28 lead at the 6:46 mark. But East Carolina came back with 10 unanswered points to take a 38-37 lead.
Rozzell’s steal and layup put VCU back in front, and a foul shot by Bradford Burgess gave the Rams a 40-38 lead.
The Pirates regained the lead on Erin Straughn’s inside basket and Abrams’ follow shot.
Rodriguez’s layup tied the game with 1:03 left before Rozzell hit his runner.
