Rams roll over Pride in first-place decider

Adam Stern
Sports Editor
Commonwealth Times Sports’ Twitter

All week long, VCU’s men’s basketball team was forced to listen to the the plethora of praise heaped upon Hofstra’s Charles Jenkins.

Perhaps it was rightly so.

One of the leading scorers in the nations, this; drawing double digit amount of NBA scouts, that.

But once the long awaited, highly anticipated first-place showdown between the two schools got underway Thursday night, and the Rams got into rhythm, the team exposed the skeleton Hofstra’s been able to hide all season: once you contain Jenkins, there isn’t much left to be afraid of.

Holding the reigining CAA Player of the Year to 20 points— which would be a lot for most players but counts as a job well done against a player of his caliber—, including just five in the second half, and putting four players of their own into double figures, VCU utilized perhaps its most all-around team performance of the season on their way to rolling over Hofstra 82-67.

The win leaves the Rams in sole possession of first place in the CAA. It also takes VCU’s winning streak to eight games— the longest since the Anthony Grant era – and extends their home winning streak to 21 games, which is now just four games short of tying the all-time school record of 25 achieved in the Franklin Street Gym some 40 years ago.

“I thought VCU’s overall game plan and intensity were terrific,” Hofstra first year head coach Mo Cassara said. “Their constant pressure just really wears teams down and … Charles got fatigued without question; they did a really terrific job of keeping him at bay.”

The kudos for that starts first and foremost with senior shooting guard Ed Nixon. The Florida product, whose constantly consistent play has nonetheless managed to fly beneath the headline radar thus season, didn’t just help mitigate Jenkins impact, he made his own with 14 hard-earned points that usually resulted from slashing drives to the bucket. The point tally is his second highest of the season behind his 16-point output vs. then No. 24 Tennessee.

“Jenkins is a tough player,” Nixon said. “We were five guys out there guarding him, and if we all guard him he’s going to have a tough night and it forced other guys to make plays.”

That’s where Hofstra failed.

Junior big man Greg Washington— who has been an All CAA-Defensive Team selection two years in a row— was off to a fine start before he got in foul trouble. After that, VCU’s depth made the game a non-contest. The Rams’ top two scorers combined for 32 points while Hofstra’s combined for 34. VCU’s next three scorers combined for 35 points; Hofstra’s next three only combined for 20.

“We followed the plan and we were at home, and I think we’re pretty good at home,” VCU head coach Shaka Smart said. “You can’t put it one guy who put it on his back; I thought the whole team did good.”

That includes the coaching staff. Smart and his assistants have been up against the grain facing two of the best players in the league in less than a week in Old Dominion University forward Frank Hassell and Jenkins.

The dedication they’ve put into stopping those stars was epitomized by a quip Smart dropped after being asked what VCU’s strategy was to stop Jenkins.

Said Smart, “How long ya’ got?”

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Photo by: Chris Conway