VCU looked to mount a third BCS head on its wall after two nice wins over Wake Forest and UCLA, but ex Sunbelt and Metro conference rival South Florida (5-3) had other plans in mind and handed the Rams a tough 60-59 overtime loss.

The Bulls of the Big East streaked out to a 10-2 lead and eventually a game high 18 point advantage in the first half thanks to a slew of VCU bricks and defensive lapses. But the Rams battled back and eventually took a 1 point lead when Florida native Joey Rodriguez connected from long range with 46 seconds to play.

South Florida answered with and old fashioned 3-point play of it’s own, giving the Bulls a 2 point advantage just before another Floridian Ram, Ed Nixon, connected on a layup that would send the game into overtime.

There the Rams would be crippled by another slow start as USF started extra time with an 8-2 advantage before Jamie Skeen and Brandon Rozzell cut the lead to a single point, and put Bradford Burgess in a position to win it with seconds remaining.

Unfortunately for the Black-and-Gold Burgess’ drive couldn’t connect or draw the foul and the Rams needed to get out of Tampa with it’s fifth win of the season.

Jamie Skeen and Bradford Burgess carried the Rams through the night in VCU’s worst offensive output of this young season.

Skeen posted a game high 16 points, grabbed 6 boards, and blocked 2 shots in the losing effort.

Bradford Burgess notched his first double-double of the season, scoring 15 points to go with a game high 13 rebounds.

VCU’s Florida natives Ed Nixon and Joey Rodriguez may have enjoyed the hometown faces, but saw little success on the court combining for just 6 makes on 17 attempts for a 15 point joint effort.

The Rams usually reliable bench, which houses VCU’s leading scorer, Brandon Rozzell (16 pts/game), only added 13 points in the loss, 15 less than in VCU’s previous game, an 89-85 win over UCLA.

VCU moves to 4-2 on the season and gets a chance to take out their aggression on struggling William and Mary (3-4) this Saturday at noon at the Stuart C. Siegel Center.

RICHMOND, Va. – Some of the country’s best coaches, Bruce Pearl and Ben Howland, commented on the incredible balance that the Virginia Commonwealth University men’s basketball team brings to each game and how it can be a nightmare to try and defend.

That balance has been on the forefront of the Rams early season success and it has been rewarded with a third straight Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Week honor, this time for senior forward Jamie Skeen. The Charlotte, N.C. native earns his first weekly accolade and shares it with JMU big man Denzel Bowles.

“Jamie told me a few days before the Tennessee game that he wanted the ball more,” Head Coach Shaka Smart said. “So we said okay, we’ll get you the ball more. To whom much is given, much is expected, and he certainly produced this week.”

It is the first time in the at least the last 10 years of CAA history that three different players from same team won the weekly award in consecutive weeks. Joey Rodriguez (11/15) and Bradford Burgess (11/22) won the award in the two weeks prior.

Skeen was a force down low for the Black & Gold averaging 17.5 points and 11.5 rebounds during the squad’s two games at the NIT Season Tip-Off at Madison Square Garden.

In VCU’s tough loss to 24th-ranked Tennessee, he recorded his second career double-double at VCU with 12 points and a game-high 14 rebounds, while knocking down 8-of-9 from the charity stripe.

His breakout offensive performance came in the third-place game against UCLA where he tallied a game-high 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting, along with nine rebounds and one block.

For his performance, Skeen was named to the All-Tournament Team, where he was joined by Reeves Nelson of UCLA, Mouphtaou Yarou of Villanova, Tobias Harris of Tennessee and the Tournament Most Outstanding Player, Scotty Hopson of Tennessee.

On the season, he is averaging 15.0 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.2 blocks, while shooting 52.3 percent from the field.

Skeen and his teammates will return to action on Wednesday night when they travel to South Florida for a 7 p.m. showdown in the Sunshine State.

via VCUAthletics.com