Late free throws send VCU past Drexel in Colonial final

RICHMOND, Va. -- Troy Daniels is such a good shooter that Virginia Commonwealth coach Shaka Smart has said he thinks every shot the junior guard takes is going in. Lucky for the Rams, they did when it counted Monday.

Daniels made four free throws in the final 19 seconds, allowing the Rams to hold on after blowing a big lead and beat top-seeded Drexel 59-56 in the championship game of the Colonial Athletic Association tournament.

A year after making a stunning run to the Final Four as an at-large selection -- one of the final teams chosen for the field of 68 -- VCU is heading back to the NCAA Tournament with an automatic bid.

As his teammates struggled down the stretch, Daniels knocked down the pivotal free throws.

"It's something that a shooter has in his mind," Daniels said. "You learn to block stuff out when you miss shots and when other people miss shots. It's not contagious to any shooter I know."

For much of the night, the Rams (28-6) looked as if they wouldn't need any heroics. They led by 16 at halftime thanks to their smothering, ball-hawking defense, but the Dragons (27-6) slowly came back.

Daniels bailed them out, making two from the line with 18.9 seconds left to give them a 57-53 lead, then, after a 3-pointer by Drexel's Chis Fouch, two more with 11.9 seconds left.

When Frantz Massenat's 3-point try missed at the either end, the Rams were one their way back to the NCAA Tournament.

"It's great," Bradford Burgess, the Rams' only senior, said of the school's first automatic berth since 2009. "Last year those six days after the championship were pretty rough for us not knowing what we were going to do. Now we can sit back and chill and relax and watch some basketball."

Darius Theus, who had a career-high 16 points, five rebounds and five steals, said he was most grateful to Daniels. Theus' turnover with 22 seconds left allowed the Dragons to get within 55-53.

"I just want to say thank you to Troy," Theus said. "I threw that bad pass (that Massenat turned into two free throws), and if it wasn't for Troy, we wouldn't be sitting here."

MAAC

■ Loyola-Maryland 48, Fairfield 44 -- At Springfield, Mass., Erik Etherly had 10 points and seven rebounds to lead the Greyhounds back into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1994 with a win over the Stags in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship game.

Second-seeded Loyola (24-8) trailed by four at halftime, but opened the second half on an 11-1 run.

The Greyhounds held Fairfield without a point for almost eight minutes, then held on for their fifth win in six games.

Rakim Sanders scored 12 points and Ryan Olander 11 for Fairfield (19-14), which upset top-seeded Iona in Sunday's semifinals.

SOUTHERN

■ Davidson 93, Western Carolina 91 -- At Asheville, N.C., Clint Mann's dunk with 1:04 left in double overtime put Davidson ahead to stay, and the Wildcats won the Southern Conference championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Western Carolina's Keaton Cole, who helped spark a furious rally at the end of regulation, missed a 3-pointer from 20 feet with three seconds left that would have given the Catamounts a huge upset and their first tournament berth since 1996.

JP Kuhlman and De'Mon Brooks, the tournament's most outstanding player, each scored 19 points to lead the top-seeded Wildcats (26-7).

Cole led the Catamounts (17-18) with 21 points, and Tawaski King and Harouna Mutombo each scored 20.