Troy Daniels played zone-buster once again, leading the Rams with 15 points and hitting 5-of-10 attempts from long range in another defensive battle at the Siegel Center.

Northeastern battled back in the last 1:29 but the 11-point VCU lead proved too much to overcome after Juvonte Reddic iced the game with his 10th and 11th points at the line with 29 seconds remaining. Reddic added 11 rebounds for his third double-double in five games.

The Rams (20-5, 11-2) hold a share of first place with Drexel (19-5, 11-2) and George Mason (19-6, 11-2) heading into VCU’s Wednesday night home contest against the Tigers of Towson (1-24, 1-12).

Having just notched their 15th-consecutive sellout, VCU would basically lock up a sold out season if they can manage a packed arena Wednesday against Towson, as the remaining games after are both nationally-televised ESPN contests — the first a Bracketbusters matchup against a Northern Iowa squad that just downed 12th-ranked Creighton, and a senior-night battle against rival George Mason.

The 14-point halftime lead proved to be the cushion the Rams needed against a Tribe squad that for one reason or another seems to play their best basketball against the black-and-gold. Juvonte Reddic’s 20 points on 9-of-12 shooting, Troy Daniels hot 4-of-8 from long range and 16 points, combined with 36 bench points to William & Mary’s 9, was just too much offense for Tony Shaver’s group.

A big road win the night George Mason slipped up at Delaware moves the Rams into a tie for first and puts them at 19-5 on the season with a 10-2 CAA record, the exact same records last year’s senior-lead team at the same point in the season.

Is Shaka’s youth movement ahead of schedule? Check out our video highlights from the win and judge for yourself.

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.

It was the third time the black-and-gold held an opponent under 50 points during their current three-game win streak, turning the Pride over 18 times on the night and holding them to just 4-of-20 shooting in the second half of play.

Bradford Burgess lead the Rams with 14 points in the win, half coming from the free throw line, and matched Juvonte Reddic’s game-high 7 rebounds.

Three other Rams posted double-digits on the evening, as Burgess was joined by starters Reddic (10), Troy Daniels (12), and Darius Theus (10), who posted his first three-game double-digit scoring stretch of the season.

The Rams may have lost four seniors from last year’s Final 4 team, but have been served well by their youth, matching last year’s 16-5 start to the season.

VCU will head to the Towson Center to take on the Tigers of Towson University (0-21, 0-9) this Thursday. The Tigers are currently riding a 40-game losing streak and haven’t recorded a win since December of 2010.

The Rams will follow that game with road contests at Georgia State and William & Mary before returning to the Siegel Center for a special “white out” homecoming game against the Huskies of Northeastern University.

Check out the highlights from last night’s sold-out action as VCU prepares for a Monday night matchup against the Pride of Hofstra University.

The first half was evenly matched by both teams but the Rams were able to impress their Havoc style of defense to get the 64-45 win over the Dukes.

It was a lot of back and forth with multiple lead changes that saw Freshman Treveon Graham lead all Rams in scoring on a new career night with 18 points. Junior Guard Darius Theus was next with 12 points on the night.

The Rams second half defense effort really slowed down the Dukes pace limiting their second chance opportunities as the Rams out rebounded JMU 44 – 30. VCU’s bench provided 15 points compared to JMU’s 5.

There was some tension in the 2nd half that certainly swung momentum in VCU’s favor after JMU’s Andre Semenov got tangled up with VCU’s Junior Troy Daniels that led to technical fouls on both including a personal on Semenov.

The Dukes went field goal-less for about 8 minutes after that foul assesment and the Dukes could never recover.

VCU advances to 3-2 in conference play and 12-5 over all. They will travel to Delaware on Saturday to face the Blue Hens.

Both teams were undefeated in conference play heading into the match up.  Georgia State went on to a 3-0 conference record while VCU drops to 2-1 after the 55-53  loss.

Poor shooting was the story of the night for VCU ending the night shooting just 27 % from the field.  Troy Daniels led all Rams with 15 points and was the only Ram to break into double digits.

Georgia State’s Jihad Ali led all players with 17 points as the Panther continue their winning streak to 11 games and are the only CAA team with an undefeated conference record.

Senior Bradford Burgess went cold on the night waiting until the final minutes to get his first field goal of the evening and ended with just 5 points in 34 minutes.

This marks the second time the Panthers have defeated the Rams since joining the conference.

The game set a new record for consecutive sell outs at The Stu at 10.

The Rams will travel to Philly on Jan 8th to face the Drexel Dragons.

The Spartans committed just four first-half turnovers — two less than VCU — and after a last second three-pointer went into the lockers down just four at the half.

But the Rams first half pressure appeared to do what it has done most of this season, as VCU was able to go on a 20-7 run over a five and a half minutes stretch of the second half, extending their lead to 65-50.

Rob Brandenberg lead the second-half charge, scoring 11 of his 17 points in the second stanza.

VCU had five steals and forced 10 turnovers in the second half.

Bradford Burgess lead the Rams with 19 points on the evening, going 3-of-6 from long range. Burgess added five rebounds, all of which came in the first half.

Juvonte Reddic rounds out the list of double-digit scorers fro the black-and-gold with 15 points in the win. Reddic added six rebounds, an assist and one steal for the Rams.

The win moves VCU to 9-3 on the season and will next head to Akron, Ohio where Coach Smart was an assistant for three years under current Zips coach Keith Dambrot.

The Rams have gone 3-0 against the Zips since they were paired in the ESPN Bracketbusters matchup in 2008, last winning 70-53 in Coach Smarts first season as head coach at VCU.