Maynor’s surge lifts Rams over South Dakota State

VCU players – and their coaches – have accused themselves of standing around and watching senior point guard Eric Maynor (Raeford, N.C./Westover) during the game. On Wednesday night, he gave them a reason to. Maynor scored 10 of his game-high 29 points in the final seven minutes to help slam the door on South Dakota State, 72-56.

“To me, that was classic Eric Maynor where he took the game over and just affected everyone on the floor on our team,” said VCU head coach Anthony Grant.

The game was the second home game for the Rams in the Cancun Challenge. The teams will both head to Mexico during Thanksgiving break to complete the tournament.

VCU set the tone early, jumping out to a 16-point lead after a Maynor 3-pointer made the score 25-9 with 10:25 to
go in the first half. However, the Jackrabbits outscored the Rams for the rest of the half 21-13 behind three 3-pointers from guard Clint Sargent. Garrett Callahan closed out the first-half scoring with a 3-pointer with 1:05 to go to bring SDSU within eight, 38-30 at halftime.

“One of the things we continue to talk about is our guys playing with a purpose,” Grant said. “We got up 16 or 18 points and we coasted a little bit and they took advantage of that.”

The second half began as a back-and-forth, low-scoring battle with both teams making runs. Another Maynor 3-pointer capped a 9-2 VCU run and gave the Rams a 13-point, 47-34 lead with 12:03 left in the game. But the Jackrabbits answered with an 8-0 run to close the lead to five. Maynor answered the run with a 3-pointer and a dunk that followed a steal in the backcourt to set off a 25-14 run to close the game.

Despite the late VCU run, South Dakota State coach Scott Nagy credited the deficit his team faced early in the game as the reason for the loss.

“You can’t get off to starts like that against a good basketball team and expect to win games,” he said.

While Maynor took care of business on the offensive end, sophomore Larry Sanders (Ft. Pierce, Fla./Port St. Lucie) handled things on the defensive end. The 6-foot-10-inch forward came away with seven blocks – four in the second half. He now has 10 for the season, good enough for top 10 in the country. Kirill Pishchalnikov (Maykop, Russia/MGGTK AGU) had 10 rebounds in the win while Sanders had eight. As a team, the Rams held the Jackrabbits to 30.9 percent shooting.

VCU is back in action Saturday on the road against Rhode Island. The game tips off at 7 p.m.

NOTES: Larry Sanders’ seven blocks were the most he has had in a game since recording nine at Akron on Feb. 28. Eric Maynor’s 29 points was one off from his career high and the most he has scored since a 26-point outburst at Northeastern on Feb. 20.