Another bad sequel

Head coach Jeff Capel stressed to his team in the few days before they traveled to Wake Forest that they had to “understand who they were playing against and where they were playing.”

They nearly stunned Wake Forest last year in the NCAA tournament, but at the time the Demon Deacons were just another fourth seed and they were playing at a relatively neutral site with fans from Florida, Manhattan and Arizona filling the RBC Center in Raleigh, N.C.

Last Thursday’s 81-67 loss was a little different, and it had nothing to do with the Rams not having Domonic Jones or Troy Godwin.

Wake was now considered the second-best team in the country, and this time around VCU had to go to the Demon Deacon’s home court in Winston-Salem and deal with all the disadvantages that come with being an underdog on the road at an Atlantic Coast Conference school.

The team had to block out the roar from the student section that went some six sections and 2,500 tie-dye shirt wearing “Screamin’ Deacons” deep.

“Our guys aren’t used to playing in this kind of environment,” Capel said. “We told our guys this year this place seats a little bit over 14,000. Probably about 13,925 of them are going to be for Wake. We’re going to have about 75 people here cheering for us and you won’t be able hear them.”

They also had to adjust to the officiating. The referees called 52 fouls. They whistled the Rams for 32 of them.

“My guys did a good job (adjusting),” Capel said. “I didn’t do such a good job.”

The third-year head coach yelled at refs throughout the game, telling them, “They (Wake) foul just like us.”

Wake Forest poster boy Chris Paul, who said he and everybody else on the Demon Deacons’ roster had shot 100 free throws before the game. He shot 15 more during the game, hitting on 14 attempts.

Capel drew a technical foul with 8:58 left in the second half and his team trailing 60-52, sending Paul to the line for two more freebies.

“I got caught up in the emotion,” Capel said. “I got a technical that was probably at a bad time. That tech was all on me.”

The sophomore guard was just 1-for-3 from the floor all game, driving for a lay-up midway though the second half.

“In the end, they scored more points than us,” Capel said. “They scored quite a bit from the free throw line-29 to 37-(eight) more points than us from the free throw line.”

Alexander Harper, who scored a game-high 17 points, was responsible for Paul when the Rams weren’t playing zone and when Paul wasn’t sitting on the bench in foul trouble.

“I thought he did a pretty decent job,” Capel said, “as good a job as anybody’s going to do. You’re not going stop that guy, especially when he’s shooting (15) free throws.”

The Rams, however, couldn’t adjust to Wake’s tempo. Playing without Paul for the last 13 minutes of the first half, Wake guards Justin Gray and Taron Downey ran the Rams up and down the court.

“That first half was probably the most run-oriented … of any I’ve ever been in, ” said Wake Forest head coach Skip Prosser. “But again, when we get stops we get spurts.”

Wake started the game with an 18-5 run, getting three pointers from Jamaal Levy and Trent Strickland.

Sophomore forward Ricardo Dixon started a run for the Rams by pulling a three from the top of the key. His two hand slam off B.A. Walker’s missed three gave the Rams a 25-24 lead with 7:52 left in the half. Then Walker threw an oop to forward Jesse Pellot-Rosa, who laid it up to cap a 17-2 run and give the Rams a 27-24 lead.

That would be their largest lead of the game.

Wake’s Gray hit three buckets-a lay-up, a NBA-range three pointer, and a step-back, mid-range jumper-and the Demon Deacons went on an 18-0 run before the end of the half, all while their biggest threat watched on the bench.

“I know I don’t have to be out their for my teammates to succeed,” Paul said. “I have the ultimate confidence in my teammates.”

The Rams still forced Wake to commit 20 turnovers, and Paul coughed the ball up five times in his 26 minutes on the court.

“We played well enough to win,” Paul said. “All those free throws and turnovers won’t win us huge games down the road.”

Capel, however, said he hopes this game is something his team will be able to build on going into Saturday’s game at Alabama Birmingham at 8:30 p.m.

The Rams took an 86-65 pounding to the ACC’s Georgia Tech last year on Dec. 29. They went on to win eight of their next 10 games.

“We went down there and we did some nice things, Capel said. “We were able to grow as a team because of that.

“We didn’t come here for moral victories,” Capel said. “We’re upset. We’ll get better from this. And thank goodness there’s a lot of season left as opposed to last season when we played them.”