VCU stifles Delaware for second straight win.

Quinn Casteel
Assistant Sports Editor
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GAME STORY

NEWARK, Del. — VCU kept the Blue Hens of Delaware scoreless for the first nine minutes of the first half to set the tone for one of its most dominant defensive efforts of the season on Saturday afternoon, coming out with a 68-55 win.

The Rams never trailed in the game, but shot only 35 percent as a team. Despite holding Delaware scoreless for nearly a quarter of the game, they had only mustered eight points of their own.

“It’s nice to start the game like that defensively, but we weren’t scoring a lot either so it’s not like we were building a huge lead,” said Shaka Smart. “But any time you can keep a team on zero for that long you’ve got to feel good about your defense.”

As Smart alluded to, it was defense and aggressive moves to the basket that earned VCU it’s 68 points. Junior guard Troy Daniels was 0-7 from the field and 0-5 on three-pointers but he contributed with nine rebounds, five of which came on the offensive side. Sophomores DJ Haley and Juvonte Reddic combined for three blocks and played with a presence that sparked the entire team.

“Like coach always says defense creates offense,” said Darius Theus. “That’s our mindset.”

Theus and senior forward Bradford Burgess were especially high on Haley’s performance, which Haley himself agreed was the best performance of his career.

“DJ played amazing today,” said Burgess. “When we’re in his ear telling him how well he’s playing, that gets his motor going even more and gets his energy even higher.”

“DJ Haley, other than Briante Weber, can lift our defensive energy more than anyone on our team,” added Smart. “With his talk and his presence and his physicality out there, and I thought he did that today.”

Burgess was quick to praise Haley for his efforts, but it was the senior’s game-high 18 points that kept VCU ahead with a comfortable lead. Burgess was just 4-14 from the field but most of his damage was done from three-point range and at the free throw line where he was 7-9. Reddic was the only other Ram to reach double figures with 11 points, but he missed out on a double-double by just one rebound.

“He just led,” said Smart on Burgess’ and his performance. “He did what a senior is supposed to do, he made some big shots, he rebounded well. We played a small team for most of the game so he had to fight against guys that are bigger than him. He communicated with the younger guys on defense which allowed us to be a good defensive team.”

As dominant as VCU was on defense in the first half, they racked up 10 fouls. Delaware, however, shot just five free throws in the period because most of fouls were of the non-shooting variety. On the other side, it was a free throw contest: the Rams got to the line 13 times on 11 Blue Hen fouls.

Delaware sent VCU into the double bonus with just under seven minutes remaining in the half, but in the second half they weren’t called for their first foul until ten full minutes had passed.

“In terms of the fouls, all those fouls in the first half and no fouls for the first part of the second half, they don’t let me comment on officials, so it is what it is,” said Smart.

“Go figure,” said Delaware head coach Monte Ross. “We must have been fouling in the first half and we must not have been fouling in the second half.”

Both coaches also went on to say the game was not decided in any way by the officials, and that they thought it was a good crew.

Regardless of the consistency of foul calls, the Rams left Delaware on Saturday with their second consecutive conference victory. They face William & Mary at home on Thursday in what begins a stretch of four games in seven days, as they look to re-gain momentum following back-to-back losses to Georgia State and Drexel.

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Photo by: Chris Conway/The CT