La Salle University came into "the Stu" also know as the Siegel Center with no fear and put it to the home-standing Rams in the first half shooting almost 50% in the first half and taking a 9-point lead into the locker room...the Explorers have no fear because they proved they could play with the best in the Atlantic 10 by beating the Butler Bulldogs earlier this week at home in Philadelphia.
LaSalle v. Virginia Commonwealth...January 26, 2013
This road test would be a tough one but the Rams looked sluggish at one point giving up 14 straight without responding: La Salle had a ten-point lead late in the half while VCU once led by four points in the early going...VCU came out strong in the second half blitzing the Explorers with a seventeen to zero run to take their largest lead of eight points, 42-34. This game of streaks continued as the inside game of each team stifled the flow of the three-point shooters who had a bad night.
Treveon Graham, who is an inside presence for the Rams, had an off night: when he's on he hits threes, scores inside with his broad shoulders and gets rebounds. He scored 13 tonight, but he missed a lot of open jumpers. Troy Daniels, who scored 11, had a good night shooting but didn't have enough support. Juvonte Reddic led VCU with 22 points on 9-13 shooting and 4-7 from the line.
LaSalle only played seven players tonight which is amazing for such a physical game which was mostly played inside. For LaSalle Ramon Galloway scored 31 points on 9-18 shooting and 9-10 from the line. Tyreek Duren scored 16; Virginia Tech transfer and former All-City (Philadelphia) star Tyrone Garland scored eight points on 4-7 shooting. Tyrone didn't get any appreciable playing time at Tech and he comes back home and puts on a uni and, voila, he is a scorer again. He's getting about 23 minutes a game at LaSalle: at Tech he was getting half that at best.
LaSalle is now 14-5 and 4-2 in the A-10 while VCU is 16-5 and also 4-2. The A-10 looks interesting as everyone now has played some comparable talent and have been made aware there are losses out there for everyone.
This marks the first time in 60 years that LaSalle has beaten ranked teams in consecutive games. Last Wednesday night's win over Butler was the first of the two victories over ranked teams.
Comments