Maynor too much for Richmond

  With less than two minutes remaining in what had been a sloppy first half of basketball, Richmond led VCU by six points on the Rams home floor. Then VCU’s flashy junior point guard, Eric Maynor, took over the game. Maynor shot three times to score eight points, putting the Rams ahead by one point at […]

December 8, 2007; 11:49 PM • by FTRea

 

With less than two minutes remaining in what had been a sloppy first half of basketball, Richmond led VCU by six points on the Rams home floor. Then VCU’s flashy junior point guard, Eric Maynor, took over the game. Maynor shot three times to score eight points, putting the Rams ahead by one point at the intermission.

“We got a little too anxious, “ Richmond head coach Chris Mooney said of his team’s play during that stretch.

Maynor then scored the first six points of the second half. Most in the sellout crowd of 7,530 at the Siegel Center made their approval abundantly apparent, as the surging Rams never looked back: VCU 65, Richmond 45.

By the time of the final horn Maynor had poured in 25 points, to lead all scorers. It wasn’t that he played flawlessly, because that wasn’t the case. But when he wanted to, it seemed Maynor could swell up to take control of the floor and the air space over it. Just as the mighty Duke Blue Devils were last March in that NCAA tournament game, tonight the one-step-too-slow Spiders were at a loss to do anything about it.

“His [Maynor’s] will to win is contagious on our team,” said VCU head coach Anthony Grant.

Richmond’s freshman point guard, Kevin Anderson, scored 10 points, to pace the Spiders attack. Richmond shot a miserable 29.4 percent from the field. Credit the Rams swarming defense for that.

After winning their third game in seven days, the Rams (6-3) can catch their breath and savor beating the Spiders, to move VCU’s overall advantage in the cross-town rivalry to 38-24.

Richmond (4-6) will play ODU (5-4) at the Robins Center on Wed., Dec. 12. Next up, VCU will host Longwood (2-9) on Sat., Dec 15, at the Siegel Center.

December 8, 2007 11:49 PM 0