Recap: Troy Daniels’s career night (again) leads VCU past ETSU

It seemed as if the Rams could do no wrong as VCU trounced East Tennessee State University, 109-58, Wednesday night in Johnson City.

January 3, 2013; 6:59 AM • by Aaron Williams

It seemed as if the Rams could do no wrong as Virginia Commonwealth University trounced East Tennessee State University, 109-58, Wednesday night in Johnson City. Troy Daniels scored a career high 33 points on an Atlantic-10 conference record 11 made 3-point field goals.

Recap

The Buccaneers were short on answers on both ends of the court as VCU forced turnovers and hit 3-pointers on command. The return of point guard Petey McClain did little to limit the effectiveness of the Ram’s full court pressure. ETSU tallied 10 turnovers in the first 10 minutes which allowed VCU to immediately jump out to a double digit lead.

ETSU started in zone defense throwing in some occasional full court pressure and Troy Daniels responded by hitting five first-half 3-pointers. After putting up little resistance for fifteen minutes, the Bucs switched to man defense, but it did little to slow Troy Daniels and Treveon Graham. Graham finished the night with 19 points and 10 rebounds.

VCU led 51-31 at halftime. Coach Smart certainly made strategic changes that favored experimentation rather than running up the score like switching to a 2-3 zone and relying on bench minutes, but it made little difference. Freshman Melvin Johnson finished with 10 points and nine rebounds. Justin Tuoyo drained his 2nd career 3-pointer, Teddy Okereafor channeled some Troy Daniels and hit an NBA range 3-pointer, and walk-on David Hinton finished with a career-high six points and a career-high four rebounds.

VCU outscored ETSU, 58-27, in the second half. By the final buzzer, every single Ram scored and tallied at least one rebound.

ETSU’s Lester Wilson finished with 14 points and 7 rebounds. No other Buc finished with more than two rebounds, and senior Jarvis Jones really struggled. He finished with seven points on 1-of-8 shooting, grabbed one rebound, turned the ball over eight times and committed three fouls.

Top performer: Troy Daniels

Troy Daniels is on a mission, and he is rewriting the record book in the process. It started against Longwood when he made 7-of-13 3-pointers en route to a career high 25 points. One week later, Daniels upped his career high while hitting a school record 9-of-16 3-pointers while scoring 27 points.

Just when it seemed like the sometimes streaky 3-point specialist couldn’t play any better, Troy Daniels delivered the best game of career. It took 24 minutes of action for Daniels to score 33 points on an A-10 record 11-of-20 shooting from 3-point range while also grabbing a career-high 10 rebounds for his first double-double.

Daniels now owns the Atlantic 10 record for 3-pointers in a game and the VCU single season-record for 3-pointers. With 188 career 3-point field goals, Daniels moved past Bo Jones into fifth all time at VCU. It’s particularly impressive considering his limited role in his first two seasons and his broken foot during his sophomore campaign. Daniels is 43 3-pointers short of Bradford Burgess in 2nd place and 81 3-pointers short of B.A. Walker in 1st place.

Rob Brandenberg

Rob Brandenberg was in sweats for the game and he did not see any minutes. He has been a regular starter for the Rams this season. Energetic sixth man Briante Weber took his spot and finished the night with 5PTS, 1REB, 7AST, 3STL, and 3TO.

7 stats

• Briante Weber (8.8%) still ranks first nationally in steal%, but Darius Theus (6.1%) is catching up and now ranks 5th. The way Theus is playing, this is a 1-2 finish in the making.
• Troy Daniels leads the nation with 61 made 3-pointers.
• Darius Theus now has 351 career assists, good for 10th place all-time at VCU.
• If VCU plays 36 games like last season, Troy Daniels will finish with 156 3-pointers obliterating the school record of 94.
• If the season ended today, Troy Daniels would finish with the 6th highest 3PT% in a season ever at VCU. The highest since Nick George in 2006.
• 109 points is the most for VCU since beating Towson, 112-53, on January 27th, 2010.
• VCU out-rebounded ETSU 51-23.

Looking forward

VCU hosts Lehigh on Saturday, January 5th at 5:00 PM. The Mountain Hawks are led by senior CJ McCollum, the nation’s leading scorer at 25.7PPG.

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Related

• Boxscore
• Troy Daniels video highlights

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January 3, 2013 6:59 AM 1