With 12:43 on the clock and and an 11-point deficit in front of them, it looked as if there would be no celebrating for the Black-and-Gold in yet another tough road battle against a bottom-half CAA team.
Two overtimes and four fouled out Blue Hens later, Â not only did the Rams escape with the marathon 84-74 win, but they saw two VCU players join the 1,000-point club.
Jamie Skeen was one of those players.
Skeen came into the game 27 shy of joining the club, but kept VCU in it all night long posting 32 points to go with 11 rebounds in 44 minutes of play.
Skeen’s dominating performance was his 6th double-double on the season, and his career high 32 were the most scored by a Ram this season.
Delaware hung in all night behind lights out shooting from freshman Devon Saddler and a group of seven Blue Hens who eventually wore down and fouled out.
Monte Ross’ squad saw their final tie at 74 vanish when senior Brandon Rozzell hit his only 3-pointer of the night with just 1:36 left to play.
The Rams would close the game on a 7-0 run, all of which came from the free throw line.
Joey Rodriguez saw a cold start to his evening, but rallied as always posting 15 of his own points on the evening.
Rodriguez was a perfect 5-of-5 from the free throw line, and added 4 rebounds and 2 assists in the win.
Brandon Rozzell (11) and Bradford Burgess (14) rounded out VCU’s double digit scorers.
Burgess’ final buckets with just 26 seconds to play saw him join Jamie Skeen in the 1,000-point club. Â He added 9 rebounds and 3 assists in the win.
The win was the Rams 20th of the season, moving VCU to 20-6 on the year and 12-2 in CAA play, good enough to remain tied with George Mason for 1st in the league.
The Rams will ride their brutal 2-game road win streak back to Richmond where they will play their first home game since January 29th.
VCU will face Old Dominion in a sold out GOLD OUT at 2PM, aired nationally on ESPN2 and covered live by yours truly…VCURamNation.com
