Rams roll to senior-day victory

Calvin Duncan, Gerald Henderson and Kendrick Warren. The names and jerseys of these VCU legends hang above the Siegel Center floor.

Saturday, VCU added a fourth to this tremendous fraternity: Eric Maynor (Raeford, N.C./ Westover).

Not only did he see his jersey unrolled from the rafters, but he also broke the VCU scoring record and was honored for senior day. But despite all of the pomp and circumstance involved in the day, the most important concern was to beat Georgia State.

It was emotional at the beginning. The main thing I wanted to come out here and do was leave on a good note, and that was to win in the Siegel Center in my last game,” Maynor said.

Thanks to the momentum from Maynor’s historic day, and very balanced scoring, VCU was able to blast the Panthers, 69-41.

With Gov. Tim Kaine on hand, the sellout crowd saw the Rams win their third consecutive CAA regular season title. Becoming the first team to achieve this mark in conference history.

But coming into the game their was only one question on everybody’s mind: When would Maynor break the 15-year-old scoring record?

With 11:20 left in the first half, it finally happened. After starting the game 0 for 4 from the floor, the senior drove the ball toward the basket. He sunk a 15-foot floater from the right side of the lane to score his 1,859th point of his career to Pass Warren, who also was in attendance.

The game was tightly contested through the first 15 minutes of the first half.

VCU closed the half on an 18-2 run. They did not look back from there as a strong defensive performance kept the Panthers in the rear-view mirror.

Our defensive intensity from start to finish was as good as we have seen this year. I thought it catapulted us to a lead at the half and really carried over to a convincing win, VCU coach Anthony Grant said.

The Ram defense was very effective, as it held the Panthers to both their lowest point total of the season, and the lowest VCU has allowed.

The Ram defense also forced 21 turnovers.

We turned the ball over. You cannot come into someone else’s home on senior night, when they had an opportunity to win a championship, and turn it over as much as we did, Georgia State coach Rod Barnes said.

Larry Sanders (Ft. Pierce, Fla./Port St. Lucie) led all scorers with 14. Nine out of the ten VCU players that saw minutes scored in the game.

Rashad Chase was the only Panther in double figures with 10 points.

After the game, Maynor walked around the court with a championship belt around his waist. He was honored with a highlight video as well.

VCU now looks to turn its regular-season title into conference title. The Rams are scheduled to play their first game in the CAA tournament on Saturday at noon against the winner of the Georgia State-Delaware game.

By the numbers

VCU (21-9, 14-4)

Sanders 14, Pishchalnikov 8, Maynor 9, Rodriguez 10, Burgess 4, Saintil 5, Rozzell 13, Smith 0, Gwynn 4, Nixon 2. 28 8-9 69. 3-Pointers: Maynor, Rodriguez 2, Rozzell 2.

Georgia State (11-19, 8-10)
Hampton 2, Chase 10, Dukes 5, Goldston 2, Mendez 9, Fields 2, Curry 5, Hansbro 4, Krubally 2, Lott 0. 18 3-8 41. 3-Pointers Mendez, Curry.