After a slow start the Rams got help from Junior Troy Daniels as he hit 3-5 from behind the arc to end the first half (5 for 10 on the night) as the Rams battled back for the 59-56 win over the Huskies.

The Rams regained the lead before the end of the first half and never gave it up for the entire seconds half despite the Huskies cutting the lead down to just three at the buzzer.  VCU’s defense played a big part in that getting 21 points off of 15 Northeastern turnovers.

Daniels led all Rams with 15 points on the night while Sophomore Juvonte Reddic added in 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Senior Bradford Burgess remained quiet from the field pulling the trigger just 4 times connecting on two of them, contributing 6 points for VCU.

Tonights game marked a new school record for 15th consecutive sell out at The Stu.

The Rams move to a 20-5 record and will host Towson on February 8th.

VCU was a 14 point favorite in the Wednesday night meeting in Williamsburg.  Clearly, whoever set that didn’t see the last meeting in Richmond that saw the Rams win an overtime thriller.

The Rams weren’t looking for something as dramatic this go around and would beat the Tribe, 87-78 making it an 8 game win streak.

The Tribe cut the Rams lead down to as close as 7 points in the final minutes on a Quinn McDowell three pointer but that’s as close as they would get to the Rams.

VCU saw 4 players scoring in double digits.  Sophomore Juvonte lead all Rams in scoring with 20 points while Troy Daniels added 16, Treveon Graham dropped in 13.

VCU sophomore Rob Brandenberg continued to play himself out of his recent slump dropping 17 points and 3 assists.

Coach Smart’s Havoc style defense forced 12 turnovers from the Tribe, 9 of those coming off of steals by VCU.  The Rams kept William & Mary stand out Quinn McDowell to just 8 points off of shooting 2 for 7 on the night.

The Rams move onto a 19-5 record and return to The Stu on Saturday as they host Northeastern as part of Homecoming weekend.

VCU (18-5, 9-2) picked up a big road win last week against Georgia State (14-8, 6-5), dropping the Panthers to three games back from a first-round CAA tournament bye. GSU has lost four of their last five and fell from fifth to sixth in this week’s poll.

Northeastern (11-10, 7-4) leapfrogged Georgia State for the five slot this week after stringing together back-to-back wins this past week. The Huskies are two games behind the pack heading into a tough home game tonight against the Drexel Dragons (17-5, 9-2). The Huskies will have little time to celebrate or dwell, as they follow tonight’s battle with road tilts at VCU and Georgia State.

The biggest win of the week came when Towson snapped a 41-game losing streak dating back to December of 2010, by upsetting the Seahawks of UNCW 66-61 at the Towson Center. Towson was “rewarded” by Blog Poll voters by receiving two 11th-placed votes.

The voting panel is made up of CAA die-hard bloggers from around the league. This week’s list includes Michael Litos of CAAHoops.com and author of “Cinderella: Inside the Rise of Mid-Major College Basketball”, Brian Mull of Wilmington’s Star News Online, Ryan Kish of GMUHoops.com, TJ Doyle of William & Mary’s Gheorghe: The Blog, Ben Moore of PantherTalk.com, Joseph Suhoski  of ODU blog VBR Productions,  Mike Brodsky who provides freelance coverage of Northeastern, Matthew Schlissel of TowsonTigers.com, Rob Abbott of JMUSportsBlog.com, Jerry Beach of the Hofstra blog Defiantly Dutch and Mat Shelton of VCURamNation.com.

The Rams needed an RPI boosting opponent, and seem to have gotten that as the Panthers were the fourth-highest rated away team (57) in this year’s group of teams. VCU was the 11th-highest rated home team (84) heading into tonight’s pairings.

UNI started the season out strong, winning ten of their first eleven including a season-opening 63-46 road win at Old Dominion. The Panthers have been on a bit of a slide however, losing five of their last seven including an 11-point road loss to a 6-17 Bradley team who are winless in the MVC otherwise.

Which UNI team will show up in Richmond remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: you’d be hard-pressed to find many Kansas fans tuned into the matchup. A season before VCU stunned the college hoops world in upsetting the Jayhawks for a ticket to the 2011 Final 4, the Panthers sent Bill Self’s squad home after UNI’s Ali Farokhmanesh’s late 3-pointer punched the Panthers a ticket to the Sweet 16 and ended the season of the perennial power Jayhawks.

That’s right – VCU will be facing Northern Iowa which has an RPI rating of 57. This is good news for the Rams as fans cling on to hope of a possibility for another at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. If the Rams were able to win out the rest of the season, and beat Northern Iowa, they could find themselves appealing to the NCAA selection committee once again.

Northern Iowa boasts an overall record of 14-9, but has struggled in the Missouri Valley Conference, going 4-7 with a string of losses over the past 3 weeks.

VCU will host this PRIMETIME showdown which will be airing on Friday, February 17th at 7 PM. Go get your tickets at the box office and let’s make this one another sellout!

Our mission this week is to get as many Ram fans to travel the short trip down 64 East to Williamsburg, in what is always one of our favorite road trips of the season. We want to turn Kaplan Arena into Siegel Center East this Wednesday as Shaka’s squad takes on the Tribe in a 7PM tip. Get out of work at 5PM? perfect. It’ll take you about an hour to get there, leaving an hour to cook a couple of parking lot burgers, drink your favorite pre-game beverage, and get in your seat. We do it every year, and it’s always a blast. So join us this Wednesday and show your Rams some road support.

Directions From Richmond: Take I-64 East to Lightfoot Exit 234 (Route 199 East). At top of exit ramp, take a right onto Route 199 East. Stay on 199 East until Monticello Avenue exit. Exit at Monticello Avenue, and bear left on exit ramp. At bottom of ramp, turn left at light onto Monticello (pass under 199). Go straight through fifth stoplight (at Ironbound Road). After the light, continue straight for about half a mile and take the first right onto Compton Drive (before light at the former-hospital and shopping centers) There may not be a street sign! The road is heavily wooded on both sides. Continue on Compton Drive and turn right at the first stop sign onto Brooks Road. William and Mary Hall will be on your left. Please DO NOT park on the ramp!

Tickets: Tickets can be purchased online here https://www.ticketreturn.com/prod2/Buy.asp?EventID=74790 or at the Kaplan Arena box office on game day. $14 standard adult tickets, $8 youth. Group prices also available. VCU is technically in section 24, so something also to consider when buying your tickets.

It was the fourth time in as many games that the Rams held an opponent to under 60 points, the sixth time in VCU’s current seven-game win streak.

VCU found the Georgia State baskets a little more forgiving than in the teams previous meeting in Richmond. The Rams shot just over 41% on the night, and hit 8-of-24 from long range in the win. VCU was held to a season low 27% in the game-1 battle  at the Siegel Center, their worst performance since 1999.

Junior Troy Daniels lead the Rams with 15 points on the afternoon. Daniels hit 5-of-12 attempts, all from long range including a 3-pointer that gave the Rams and 11-point lead with 8:25 to play.

Juvonte Reddic came up big for VCU once again. The 6’9 sophomore notched his third double-double of the season, grabbing 10 rebounds in a game that saw VCU win the battle of the boards 36-29. Reddic added 11 points in the win, going 5-of-6 from the field.

Darius Theus rounds out the group of double-digit scorers for the Rams, posting 10 points to go along with seven assists, his third-straigh game with at least six assists.

The win was a big one for VCU, moving the youthful squad to 19-5 on the season and 9-2 in CAA play. VCU also moves to three games ahead of the Panthers, and two ahead of the Huskies of Northeastern for a top-four spot in the conference.

VCU heads to William & Mary (4-19, 2-9) on Wednesday and then returns to Richmond for a homecoming tip against the Huskies of Northeastern (11-10, 7-4).

The Rams jumped out to a 35-17 halftime lead behind a hot-handed Brandenberg. The Ohio native opened up the scoring for VCU and hit back-to-back threes to give the Rams an 8-6 early advantage and handling all the scoring duties to open the game.

The Tigers tied it up at 10 before VCU hit their extra gear and clamped down on the defensive end. The Rams held Towson to just two made field goals over the final 7:24 of the first half.

Brandenberg lead the Rams on both ends of the floor, posting a game-high 16 points on offense and another game-high four steals on the defensive end.

The sophomore had struggled shooting heading into this one, having been held to single digits in the previous eight games.

VCU was a menace for an opposing offense yet again, turning the Tigers over 24 times and holding them to just under 30% from the floor.

Treveon Graham was the only other Ram to reach double-digits, going for 13 points off the bench in a game where VCU’s reserves outscored both teams starters with 41 points on the night.

Graham lead VCU with eight rebounds.

Darius Theus was unable to hit double-digits in the scoring column for the first time in his last four games, but did manage to dish out a season-high 10 assists for VCU.

The win moves VCU to 17-5 overall (8-2 in CAA play), matching last year’s win total through as many games, an impressive feat for one of the ten youngest teams in the country.

The road gets a lot tougher this Saturday however as VCU gets a rematch against a Georgia State (14-7, 6-4) team that handed the Rams their only home loss of the season.

A win would put VCU in a much better position down the stretch, moving the Rams three games ahead of the Panthers who currently sit at 6-4 and fifth place in the conference. Top four teams earn a Friday CAA tournament bye, while no team outside of the top four has ever gone on to walk away with the Championship.

The Rams and Drexel Dragons (14-5, 6-2) both leaped Georgia State (13-6, 5-3) after the Panthers fell in consecutive road losses, first to Northeastern (9-9, 5-3) and then in a double overtime thriller against the Blue Hens of Delaware (8-10, 4-4) .

Delaware’s big win allowed them to move up on spot in this weeks poll to seventh place.

UNCW (8-10, 4-4), Hofstra (7-13, 1-7) and William & Mary all rose a spot this week as James Madison (9-10, 2-6) continued their rapid decent from a high of fourth place, all the way down to 11th, just ahead of the Tigers of Towson (0-20, 0-8) who were unanimous at 12th yet again.

The sold out “gold out” witnessed the havoc wreaking style Ram fans have become accustomed to watching, as Old Dominion turned the ball over 25 times, resulting in 26 points for the Rams.

Troy Daniels provided a much needed offensive spark in the effort, leading VCU with 16 points and hitting three big shots from long ranged over a three minutes second-half span, extending the Rams lead to 14 with just under 11 minutes to play.

VCU held ODU without a field goal for a 14-minute stretch, dooming any chance of a Monarch upset in Richmond.

Junior point guard Darius Theus had yet another big game following his heroics just two days prior against William and Mary. The Portsmouth native was VCU’s only other double-digit scorer, posting his second-straight double-digit game with 15 points for the Rams.

The win moves the Rams to 15-5 on the season, 6-2 in CAA play. The Monarchs drop to 11-9 but remain in the CAA’s top four, also 6-2 in conference.

VCU will have a day to rest, watch playoff football, and prepare for a 7PM Monday night home rematch against the Pride of Hofstra. VCU defeated the Pride 80-63 in their last meeting.