In the battle of the Rams the Rams were gonna' win if there wasn't a tsunami in Rhode Island to prevent the completion of this event: there were no weather events to interrupt and the VCU Rams beat the Rhode Island Rams, 70-64. The Virginia Commonwealth version of the fearsome mountain climbing goats (burly goats) came in as a sure favorite in everyone's minds, but as is frequently the case the homestanding underdog team keeps the game close...this was the first A-10 game between the two schools.
Virginia Commonwealth v. Rhode Island...January 30, 2013
VCU had a slim 29-28 lead at halftime in this game of few shots; Rhode Island put up just 54 shots going 24-54 for the game including 6-18 3-pointers...VCU didn't even get that many shots going 25-52 and 2-11 from three-point distance. VCU has shot poorly from long distance since conference play has begun and as has been the case for most of the year they have won without effective long distance shooting.
After VCU built up its largest lead of the game at 62-47 (with 4:00 remaining) Rhode Island began to hit some threes and cut the lead down to an uncomfortable five points with two minutes left. VCU never seemed to be flustered by the comeback and looked to play just good enough to win. This Rhode Island team has been on the short end of several blowouts this year and on paper this looked to be one of them so maybe Virginia Commonwealth was reading the recent box scores.
A freshman, Jordan Hare, looks to be a very effective scorer--he was 5-5 from the field-- for Rhode Island but they need another one of him and some effective rebounding: Rhode Island was outrebounded 32-21 tonight. Hare led the Rhode Islanders in rebounding with five total; that rebound total was equaled by Rhode Island guard T.J. Buchanan. That's a very low total for a 40 minute game: of that number 11 were offensive rebounds. So, Rhode Island got more offensive than defensive boards which is something you don't hear often.
Rhode Island put four players in double-figure points: Jordan Hare (10), Andre Malone (11), Xavier Munford (17) and T.J. Buchanan (11.) For VCU there was Treveon Graham (19), Juvonte Reddic (18) and Darius Theus (11.)
Rhode Island is now 6-13 and 1-5 in A-10 play while VCU is now 17-5 and 5-2 in conference play.
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