VCU tramples Towson

“They’re all freshman. They’re all freshman,” went the taunting chant from some in sell-out (7,590) crowd at the Siegel Center. With VCU ahead of Towson by 23 points in the last two minutes, Rams head coach Anthony Grant had five of his freshman recruited from Florida on the floor doing mop-up duty. They were starters Joey […]

February 2, 2008; 11:56 PM • by FTRea

“They’re all freshman. They’re all freshman,” went the taunting chant from some in sell-out (7,590) crowd at the Siegel Center.

With VCU ahead of Towson by 23 points in the last two minutes, Rams head coach Anthony Grant had five of his freshman recruited from Florida on the floor doing mop-up duty. They were starters Joey Rodriguez and Larry Sanders, plus Lance Kearse, Ed Nixon and Myk Brown off the bench.

The Rams bounced back nicely from their Tuesday 12-point loss to Mason in Fairfax, to trounce the visiting Towson Tigers: VCU 65, Towson 42.

Three of Grant’s freshmen had rather good games, statistically, and it was a good thing. As it happened, his two star guards — Eric Maynor and Jamal Shuler — had off nights, at least with their shooting, going seven for 25 from the field, between the two of them.

Sanders, a forward, scored 11 points, grabbed eights rebounds and blocked seven shots. Kearse, also a forward, scored 11 points, hauled in five boards. Rodriguez scored five points dished out five assists and got seven steals.

Of Sander’s 26 minutes on the floor, Grant said, “His defensive presence inside was tremendous.”

Towson head coach Pat Kennedy had nothing but praise for VCU’s defense. “We’ve not seen pressure like this all year.”

Next up for league-leading VCU (16-5, 9-2 in CAA) is a game on Wednesday (7:30 p.m.) at Georgia State (6-15, 3-8 in CAA).