VCU burns second half demons, trounces Drexel at home

VCU burns second half demons, trounces Drexel at Siegel

Taylor Howsmon
Sports Editor

With about nine minutes remaining in the second half of Tuesday night’s game between VCU and Drexel, the Dragons’ junior guard and leading scorer Jaime Harris went charging down the left-side of the lane towards the basket.
When he threw up his shot he found the 46.5” arm of Larry Sanders (Fort Pierce, Fla./Port St. Lucie) waiting to slap the ball into the first row of students behind the east-end basket of Verizon Wireless Arena.
After the tremendous block, Sanders fifth on the night, he turned to the students with a smile and imitated the patented finger wag of former NBA star Dikembe Mutombo.
The five blocks were just a piece of the dominance of the Ram’ big man as VCU rolled to a huge 73-54 win on its home floor.
“I love the crowd here, I love the crowd so I get involved with the crowd whenever I get a chance,” Sanders said. “This game I just tried to play with a lot of energy and it worked out.”
The 6’11” superstar scored his 10th double-double of the year with 29 points and 13 rebounds, shooting a staggering 13-15 from the floor. And he completely separated his game from anyone else’s on the floor.
“I told him that when you come with that kind of approach, we’re going to be extremely tough to beat,” VCU coach Shaka Smart said.
In what could have been arguably the Rams’ best defensive performance of the season, VCU held the sixth-best scoring team in the CAA to only 54 points on 36 percent shooting.
Through the first 10 minutes of the opening half, it appeared that the Dragons would fight VCU tooth and nail the entire way.
With the score 16-15 with 10:05 remaining, VCU took to the task and according to coach Smart said as a team, “we’re not going to let this happen tonight.”
VCU finished the half with a 17-6 run, forged by Sanders’ 10 points in that stretch. The Rams were also able to begin dominating Drexel in the paint.
Besides Sanders, both Jaime Skeen (Charlotte, NC/Wake Forest University) and Terrance Saintil (North Miami, Fla./Monsignor Pace) contributed major efforts on both ends.
Saintil played a whopping 14 minutes in the game, his second highest total on the year, and helped Sanders with a great defensive effort in the post.
In what seemed like a blink of an eye, the Rams had surged the lead from one to 12 on a three by Joey Rodriguez (Oviedo, Fla./Lake Howell).
“The end of the first half was what killed us. The game was tight … and we started the second half the same way we finished the first,” said Drexel coach Bruiser Flint.
The Rams seemed to cure whatever ailment was afflicting them in the past two games, where the Rams blew leads at the half to lose.
On this night, VCU had the lead and was not going to surrender it in the final 20 minutes.
“I think to fix the problem, we had to figure out what the problem was,” Sanders said. “It wasn’t offense; it was all defense … I think we tried to fix that tonight.”
The Rams leaped out of the locker room on a 10-4 run and, with the lead at 43-25, they never looked back and kept the foot on the gas pedal.
Even though Drexel found a way to cut the lead to 13, the result of the game was never really in question as VCU forced the Dragons into submission.
With a few exclamation-point plays down the stretch including a play-of-the-year quality no-look pass and jam from Brandon Rozzell (Richmond/Highland Springs) to Sanders, the Rams were able to pull away once and for all, winning 73-54.
Bradford Burgess (Midlothian/Benedictine) also contributed a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
12 Rams saw action and nine scored in the game as VCU shot a sweltering 52 percent for the game.
Harris led Drexel with 20 points.
Now VCU looks to make a run toward the end of the season with an ESPNU Bracketbusters game Saturday against Akron.
As Sanders indicated afterward, last season VCU lost a close game at Nevada and responded, reeling off five straight victories, including one in the CAA title game to earn a trip to the big dance.
VCU is now tied with Drexel for fifth in the CAA with a record of 18-7 and 10-6 in the league.

By the Numbers
Drexel (15-13, 10-6)
Colds 0, Harris 20, Thomas 6, McCoy 0, Sam. Givens 2, Spencer 6, Phillip 0, Neisler 8, Sha. Givens 12.
Totals: 21 8-14 54
3-pointers: Harris 2, Sha. Givens 2 (team: 4-11)
VCU (18-7, 10-6)
Sanders 29, Rodriguez 8, Burgess 11, Skeen 5, Nixon 4, Grayson 0, Saintil 2, Theus 3, Pishchalnikov 0, Daniels 0, Rozzell 9, Gwynn 2.
Totals: 27 12-20 73
3-pointers: Rodriguez 2, Burgess 1, Theus 1, Rozzell 3 (team: 7-15)