Gerald Lee is Soft!
Larry Sanders and Joey Rodriguez combined for 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists in the second half to help Virginia Commonwealth to a 70-58 Colonial Athletic Association game against rival Old Dominion on Saturday in front of a sold out crowd at the Siegel Center.
Old Dominion controlled play for the first eight minutes culminating in a Bazemore dunk off a well designed in-bounds giving the Monarchs an 18-8 lead at the 12:31 mark. VCU would respond with a 16-5 run capped by an Ed Nixon three to give the Rams a 24-23 lead.
The rest of the half remained a back and forth affair as neither team could hold a lead for more then few minutes. The half would end with the Monarchs holding a 33-31 lead.
VCU opened the second half on an 11-2 run erasing a 2 point ODU halftime lead and putting the Rams ahead 44-38 with 12:44 to go in the second half.
Darius James hit a pair of three's that cut the VCU lead down to three-points on two occasions but the Monarchs could get no closer to overcoming the deficit.
The Rams went on a 17-5 run with 8 minutes to go to give the Black & Gold a 15-point advantage and the eventually victory. The Monarchs were only able to muster two field goals over the remaining 7:55 of the game.
In his first start of the season, senior Kirill Pishchalnikov went 5-for-7 from the field and 4-for-4 from the line for a season-high 14 points.
Pishchalnikov replacing Sanders in the starting lineup scored six of the Rams’ first eight points.
Junior Larry Sanders came on late to register his eighth double-double of the season with 14 points and 12 rebounds, while sophomore Bradford Burgess led all scorers with 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting.
Kent Bazemore lead the way for ODU, finishing with 12 points, six rebounds, three assists and one steal, while Frank Hassell was the only other Monarch in double-figures with 10 points and five boards.
ODU entered the contest ranking fifth in the country in rebounding margin with a +8.8 mark. The Black & Gold won the battle of the boards by a tally of 39-37.
The Ram defense was equally impressive forcing 16 turnovers and holding the Monarchs to just 33.3 percent shooting in the second half. ODU has had only six games this season with 16 or more turnovers.
The Monarch’s leading scorer, Gerald Lee, was held to just four shots on the afternoon.
The loss knocks ODU (18-7, 10-3) out of a first-place tie in the Colonial Athletic Association and pulls VCU (17-5, 9-4) within a game of second place with five contests left on the schedule.
The Rams will be heading to Fairfax Tuesday to face George Mason as part of Rivalry Week. Tip is scheduled for 7 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
In other news, Sophomore guard Jay Gavin has left Virginia Commonwealth's basketball team for what the school said was personal reasons.
Gavin sat out last year after transferring. He averaged 12.3 points as a freshman at Marist and was the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference's co-rookie of the year.
He started 7 games for the Rams and averaged 5.6 points for VCU, with 23 assists and 14 turnovers in 17 games.
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