VCU stiff-arms Howard's second-half rallies

Final Score: VCU 70, Howard 60

Location: The Siegel Center in Richmond

Current Records: VCU 6-4, Howard 4-8

In a nutshell: Four Rams, led by graduate forward Brandon Johns with his 16 points, scored in double figures. Playing without star point guard Ace Baldwin (another wrist injury), VCU put together a 10-point halftime lead and then held off a series of second-half Howard rallies. The play of Johns, Jalen DeLoach and Josh Banks was particularly noteworthy.  

NOTES (Notes info provided by Chris Kowalczyk, VCU Assistant A.D.)

• Johns' 16 points came on 5-of-10 shooting from the field and he was a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line. Additionally, Johns grabbed seven rebounds and made three blocks, leading the team in both of those categories
• Banks, a junior guard, had a career night, setting career-best marks in both points (11) and rebounds (5)
• Sophomore forward Jalen DeLoach put on 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting, eight of which came in the first half. DeLoach left the game with a knee injury at about five minutes to go in the first half, but was able to come back to play 15 minutes in the second half
• Senior forward David Shriver was the fourth Ram in double figures, scoring 10 points on 4-of-9 from the field, including 2-of-6 from beyond the arc
• Howard had three double-figure scorers themselves, with Steve Settle III, Bryce Harris, and Jordan Wood scoring 18, 13, and 12 points, respectively 
• Howard got the early lead with a 10-2 run in the first 4:02, but the Rams outscored the visiting Bison 39-21 for the rest of the opening half to take a 41-31 lead to the locker room
• The Rams grew their lead to 12 before the Bison went on a 7-0 run over the course of three minutes to cut the margin to five at the under 16 media timeout
• VCU responded with a 7-0 run of their run over 1:50 to swell the lead back to 10, at 57-47 with 10:06 left. The Rams kept Howard at arm’s length for the rest of the game, not allowing Howard to get any closer than five points. VCU and Howard scored 29 points apiece as the Rams maintained their 10-point halftime lead at the final buzzer
• The bench players came up big for the Rams, outscoring Howard’s bench 23-10
• The Rams improved to 21-2 against teams from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), including two wins this season, defeating Morgan State earlier this season  

QUOTES

“Proud of our guys. We had some resolve there to finish the game off. I just thought we had more intensity and stuck more to the game plan then we have the last two games. Just proud of our guys. We had two really hard days of practice the last two days to get ready for this one and thought the guys responded the right way.” – VCU Head Coach Mike Rhoades

 

“I think it's really important to start off the game with great intensity and great effort and really important to end the game with great intensity and great effort. If you don’t end the game well, how you going to win. So I think we were very disciplined tonight. We had a couple of fouls that we could’ve been more disciplined on. I think overall we have been working the past two days on defense and I think it's going to be more of an emphasis for us and I think we did pretty well with it tonight.” -- Brandon Johns Jr. on finishing off the game strong

BOX SCORE

 

UP NEXT

The Rams’ six-game homestand continues, when in-state rival Radford visits the Siegel Center on Wed., Dec. 13. Tip-off against the Highlanders is set for 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on MASN and streamed on ESPN+.

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