Winning on the road can be a challenge except for days like Saturday for VCU Men’s Basketball at the Reilly Center. The Rams brought their A+ game to Saint Bonaventure and smacked the Bonnies 85-55. Here are a couple things about arguably VCU’s best total game performance of the season thus far.
Making The Game Look Easy
VCU created a 17-2 scoring run in the opening 5 minutes of the contest. With Marcus Santos-Silva set-up at the rim to do damage, VCU kept feeding their Ram pass after pass. There was an obvious mismatch between the Bonnies and Santos-Silva with VCU taking full advantage.
What also got the Rams off to the races was from their backcourt. Sean Mobley was creating his own shot while moving the ball around teammates. The three pointer was not working once again for VCU so the Rams wrecked shop from inside. De’Riante Jenkins and Issac Vann saw a lane and drove straight to the basket for points on multiple occasions.
There was a handful of issues for the Bonnies at halftime trailing 45-21. HAVOC gave the home team nightmares with 8 turnovers and being held 0-for-8 from three. Saint Bonaventure finished the half at 25% from the field. Osun Osunniyi and Courtney Stockard were in foul trouble with 3 personal fouls each at halftime.
Ram Army Assemble!
Coach Rhoades brought out the troops and VCU kept that same energy while increasing their lead. Corey Douglas and Vince Williams kept VCU’s paint game highly productive against the Bonnies. Productive minutes from P.J. Byrd and Mike’l Simms gave VCU’s starters a break but no let off on the gas.
Michael Gilmore struck from three point land twice and a slammed home a one-handed jam that put VCU well out of a reach. VCU’s bench outscored St. Bonaventure’s bench 39-21 for the game and had a 19-0 advantage in the first half.
No Bonnies in the Paint
Inside that painted rectangle was VCU’s home in New York. The Rams grabbed 50 total rebounds compared to the Bonnies’ 35. 26 points were made in the paint with Mobley leading VCU on the day with 12 points. Santos-Silva collected 11 points and 6 rebounds in his 17 minutes of play.
Eventually Osunniyi and Stockard fouled out of the contest for Saint Bonaventure. Down two of their leading players, the Bonnies could not stop the Rams from scoring. VCU finished the day at 50.8% shooting from the field going 31-of-61.
Encore?
When leading at halftime, VCU is now 15-3 at finishing the game victorious. On this day, Ram fans were in amazement as to what they witnessed. The Black & Gold went into one of the toughest A-10 arenas to win at and silenced the Reilly Center with a 30 point blowout.
HAVOC once again did it’s job on defense. VCU implemented pressure at the jump and Saint Bonaventure could not handle the ball nor the defensive pressure. 9 steals and and 14 Saint Bonaventure turnovers was the result.
On offense, ball movement shined once again. Players not rushing for the first available shot and simply dishing the ball across the court until…BANG! And that result constantly kept happening which led to VCU’s best offensive performance in conference play this season.
Now at 8-2 in A-10 play sitting next to Davidson after the Wildcats fell to UMass on the road, here’s to hoping for a similar result up next against the Spiders.
Coming Up Next
Richmond comes to the Siegel Center on Wednesday, February 13th to face VCU in the Crosstown Showdown. Tip-off starts at 7 PM on ESPN 2/ESPNU
