Last night’s battle between No.14 VCU and No.12 Oregon appeared to be one of those “last shot wins” contests between two ranked teams. Down just two points at the half, VCU opened the second on a 6-0 run before a Jay Wright timeout changed everything. From that point on, the Wildcats blitzed VCU, using a 16-0 run to begin a dominating second half against the Rams that would result in a 77-53 Wildcats win.
VCU connected on just 33% of their second half attempts, including a 0-7 mark from distance while Villanova simply couldn’t miss, hitting 58.6% of their second half shots including 6-of-10 three-pointers.
VCU’s havoc-wreaking defense forced just nine Nova turnovers to 20 Wildcats assists. VCU had just four assists in the loss.
Melvin Johnson and Briante Weber led VCU with a team-high 13 points each. Johnson connected on five of his 10 attempts but went an un-Johnson-like 1-4 from deep. Weber was 5-12 from the floor and added five rebounds and two steals but the starting point guard had zero assists in the loss.
Mo Alie-Cox was the only other Ram to hit double-digits, posting a season-high 10 points on 5-6 shooting.
The loss moves to VCU to 3-1 heading into a third-place contest against Oregon tonight. The Ducks fell to No.19 Michigan, 70-63, moving them to 3-1 on this early season.
Tonight’s contest airs on ESPNU at 7:30PM.
