A defensive back-and-forth battle early turned into a relative easy Saint Mary’s victory, as a cold VCU second half doomed the Rams in the NCAA tournament first round, 63-51.
The Rams and their West Coast Conference opponent traded leads early in the game, with VCU taking a one-point deficit into the half. Coming out of the lockers the Gaels made all the big shots VCU could not and turned a three-point lead with 11:21 to play into a double-digit advantage just over two minutes later. That advantage was made somewhat easier thanks to an Ace Baldwin ankle injury that sidelined the A-10 Player of the Year most of the second half. Baldwin attempted to give it a go minutes later, but shortly after returned back to the bench.
Despite his limited time on the floor, Baldwin led the Rams with a team-high 13 points in the loss, an unfortunate sign of how things went for the rest of the black and gold. Baldwin was 6-11 from the field on an afternoon where the 10th-ranked Gael’s defense...
