Rams one-point better than Spiders

A crowd of 7,182 saw Virginia Commonwealth University squeak by with a win over its crosstown rival, the University of Richmond, Saturday at the Robins Center: VCU 77, Richmond 76. With the score knotted at 74 points apiece, sophomore guard Joey Rodriguez passed the basketball to freshman forward Bradford Burgess. The Richmond defense had been rigged […]

December 13, 2008; 10:00 PM • by FTRea

A crowd of 7,182 saw Virginia Commonwealth University squeak by with a win over its crosstown rival, the University of Richmond, Saturday at the Robins Center: VCU 77, Richmond 76.

With the score knotted at 74 points apiece, sophomore guard Joey Rodriguez passed the basketball to freshman forward Bradford Burgess. The Richmond defense had been rigged to limit VCU’s all-star guard Eric Maynor all afternoon. So, at this crucial moment, Burgess found himself open on the wing and pulled up to confidently drain a three-pointer.

Those points put the Rams ahead of the Spiders for good with 48.5 second remaining in this year’s edition of the Black and Blue Classic.

Maynor led all scorers with 23 points. In 38 minutes on the floor he added seven assists, four steals — steals in back-to-back possessions in the game’s last five minutes — and three rebounds to his stats. Burgess, who has started every game this season, scored a career-high 12 points.

“I thought our will, our heart down the stretch really showed itself,” VCU (6-3, 1-0 in CAA) head coach Anthony Grant said. “We had some different guys step up on both ends of the floor and made plays to put us in a position to win the game.”

David Gonzalves led Richmond (5-4) with 19 points, Kevin Anderson added 16.

VCU was good on 10 of its 19 attempts from outside the three-point line, which helped to offset what was a bad night on the glass. The Rams did a poor job of blocking out, especially in the first half. Richmond won the battle of the boards 29-to-24.

The Rams return to action on Wed., Dec. 17, when they will host the Akron Zips (6-3) at the Siegel Center at 7:30 p.m.

Note: Click here for more post-game comments from Grant and others at inRich’s sports blog.