Blazers’ 17-0 run buries slumping Rams

VCU head coach Jeff Capel’s main concern going into Saturday night’s game against Alabama-Birmingham was how the Rams would respond to the Blazers full-court pressure.

For the first six minutes, they didn’t.

UAB’s senior guard Donell Taylor scored seven points early and the Blazers started the game with a 17-0 run. VCU trailed by as much as 31 points in the first half and went on to fall 79-55 in front of 4,585 fans at Bartow Arena.

“Tonight was embarrassing,” Capel told VCU’s radio personality Terry Sisisky after the loss. “We have to make sure something like this never happens again. It should not be something that should ever represent VCU basketball.

“We looked scared. We looked like we didn’t know how to play basketball.”

The Rams (1-2) shot 28 percent from the field, 21 percent from three-point range and turned the ball over 25 times.

VCU has committed 20 or more turnovers in every game this season.

“If we have turnovers, let’s have turnovers where they’re throwing the ball in the stands or getting five seconds,” Capel said. “Let’s not have turnovers and let them get lay-ups.”

That’s how Taylor scored most of his game-high 20 points for the Blazers (1-0). The 6-foot-6 guard was 5-of-9 shooting from the field, adding another 10 points from the free-throw line. He also had five assists.

His twin brother Ronell Taylor chipped in another 13 points, and forward Demario Eddins scored 16 points and grabbed five rebounds for the Blazers.

Alexander Harper’s 12 points and six rebounds were both team highs for the Rams.

Senior swingman Michael Doles scored 10 points in his first game of the season. He sat out the first two games recovering from mononucleosis.

B.A. Walker was the only other Ram to hit for double figures, but his 11 points came on 2-for-14 shooting and he made good on just two of his nine three-point attempts.

Capel threw everybody at the Blazers, but the rest of the team combined to shoot 8-of-30 from the field and the Rams couldn’t find an answer for their press. UAB finished with 15 steals and 24 points off turnovers.

“We have to attack that pressure,” Capel said. “We were tentative. We had a few guys that were tentative. When you have a team like UAB, they sense that. They’re like sharks. They smell blood.”

The third-year head coach hinted at a shake-up of the starting lineup, but he said, “We need some guys on the bench that warrant starting.”

Doles, a projected starter at the beginning of the season, had the team-high off the bench. Freshman Mike Anderson was next in line with five points in 21 minutes.

The team’s next game, against Hampton on Wednesday at 7 p.m., won’t have the big-game pressure that the Rams have had to deal with since the exhibition game against Virginia Union. But Capel said he and his coaching staff have a lot of work to do in order to turn things around.