Quinn Casteel
Assistant Sports Editor
Commonwealth Times’ Sports Twitter
Friday night was the biggest party the Siegel Center has seen since last April as VCU (1-0) snuck past St. Francis (0-1) 63-57 for an opening night victory.
The sold-out packed house got to relive the remarkable Final Four run as the festivities began with the unveiling of the 2010-2011 Final Four banner, and from there it was simply a matter of taking care of business for the Rams.
“I thought first of all that the crowd was terrific,” head coach Shaka Smart said. “It really helped us, a lot of energy. It’s tough when you’re having a rough shooting night, for everybody to really get going, but the crowd stayed with us the whole game and really gave us a lot of energy.”
St. Francis played VCU tough for the entire contest, managing to chip the Rams’ lead down to three with just 42 seconds left to go in the game. But despite allowing a substantial lead to deteriorate in the waning minutes, VCU closed the game out on a Troy Daniels 3-pointer with eight seconds left to go up by six.
The Rams finished slow and also got off to a rocky start, allowing St. Francis to hang around for the majority of the first half. They started off 5-of-14 from the field as everyone other than Juvonte Reddic was cold out of the gates. Reddic came out with confidence, scoring seven of VCU’s first 12 points. He would finish the game with a career high 19 points on 8-12 shooting and was a force on the boards as well, pulling down a team-high 10. The double-double was the first of his career.
“I just want to thank my teammates for having such confidence in me,” said Reddic. “We weren’t making shots so I knew I needed to step up and crash the offensive boards… and tonight it went well for me.”
The Rams were unable to take the lead for good until there were just under six minutes remaining in the first half. Daniels knocked down his third 3-pointer of the first half to give the Rams a 23-21 lead and they would not look back. They went on a 13-point run near the end of the first half and led 31-21 at the intermission.
Daniels would cool off in the second half however, as St. Francis mounted a bit of a comeback down the stretch. The junior guard hit four of his five three pointers in the first half. He took a total of 15 treys, a testament to the confidence that Smart and his teammates have in his stroke.
Another player who commands confidence from his coach and teammates is starting point guard Darius Theus, who racked up four assists and four steals in 37 minutes of play. Theus played the entire first half, facilitating the HAVOC style of play literally without breaking a sweat.
“I would grade (Theus’) performance at maybe a C,” said Smart. “He’s been worse but he’s been a lot better. He’s got to run our team, value the basketball better than he did, and then defensively he’s got to be more solid. But he did to a lot of good things and he did play a lot of minutes.”
True freshmen Briante Weber and Treveon Graham saw their first NCAA action, playing 10 and 12 minutes, respectively. Weber picked up three personal fouls in the just three minutes in the first half but he settled down in the second half. Meanwhile Graham was active from 3-point range, taking all three of his shots from beyond the arc, hitting one.
Bradford Burgess simply could not find his stroke going 0-for-12 from the field and 0-for-4 from 3-point range. His only points came on a pair of free throws in the first half. It was statistically the worst shooting performance of his career, but he managed to contribute with seven rebounds.
“Everybody was telling me to just keep shooting and keep playing,” said Burgess. “There’s other ways I can affect the game (besides shooting), you know on defense, offensive rebounding and getting my team open shots and I was just trying to do that.”
VCU opened the season with a win over an inferior team, but they will go up a weight class when they head south for the Charleston Classic. Their opening game is against Seton Hall on Nov. 17 in a game that will be aired on ESPNU.