Second-half run puts Colonials away

Noah Fleischman, Sports Editor

Many fans felt deja vu as the Rams held the Colonials off the scoreboard for the first 10 minutes of the second half Saturday afternoon.

In the first meeting between George Washington and VCU in Foggy Bottom, the Rams held the Colonials scoreless for the first six minutes of the second half Feb. 6. That night, the Rams used a 10-0 run to extend their lead.

This time around, the Rams used an 18-0 run to push their 3-point lead to 21. The HAVOC defense stopped the Colonials’ 15 possessions in a row during the run.

Redshirt-junior guard Marcus Evans led the way with a season-high 25 points as VCU knocked off George Washington 85-57 at the Siegel Center, extending the win-streak to eight.

The 28-point win was the second-largest victory margin recorded by the Rams against the Colonials. The largest was 30 points on Jan. 11, 2017 when VCU won 85-55 at home.

George Washington opened the game on a tear, shooting 3-for-3 on the first three attempts from beyond the arc. Maceo Jack hit two back-to-back, giving the Colonials a early 5-point lead over the Rams.

The Rams stormed out of the first media timeout in the first half with an 8-0 run to take the lead from the Colonials. George Washington shot 1-for-7 between the first two media timeouts in the half.

Rhoades said his message to the team during the media timeout was “just to relax.”

“We are not going to hit home runs every possession. We’re not going to be up 22-2 to start the game,” Rhoades said. “Get outside your feelings and do what your team needs you to do. It got better as the game went on, and I thought in the second half they did a great job of that.”

Sophomore forward Corey Douglas locked down the back court for the Rams during the first-half run with two blocks and a steal.

“[Douglas’] defensive presence at all times, his protection of the rim, him getting rebounds,” Rhoades said. “Corey does his job at an elite level, he’s an elite rim protector.”

Douglas finished with 6 points, seven rebounds and three blocks in about 11 1/2  minutes.

Redshirt-junior Marcus Evans started to heat up from beyond the arc in the first half, hitting three 3-pointers. The Chesapeake native was 5-for-8 from the field in the first half with 15 points.

“He took good threes,” Rhoades said. “They were trying to go under ball screens, if you’re a good player you take that personal. If you go under a ball screen on me, I’m going to put it in your eye. And he did that, he did that with confidence.

The Rams led by three going into the half, as George Washington was shooting 55.2 percent from the field.

“I’m sort of glad that first half happened. So, it puts us back into reality of, ‘We’ve got to do our jobs in the moment all the time,’” Rhoades said. “We just gave them a lot of easy stuff, which is not indicative of our defense.”