VCU avoids dubious distinction with win over Towson

Jim Swing Sports Editor

Towson, Md. — Entering Wednesday night’s game against VCU, a depleted Towson men’s basketball program had lost 40 straight games, an ongoing NCAA record.

VCU, on the other hand, was straight rolling. The Rams had won five straight games, their self-entitled Havoc defense was playing at an all-time high, and they were finally starting to get back into their deadly shooting rhythm.

But for VCU, the blueprint wasn’t laid out to be a walk in the park.

“It didn't enter into our mind at all,” sophomore guard Rob Brandenberg said. “Coach (Shaka) Smart, right once we started to scout, he was just telling us they may have lost all their games this season, but they can beat us if we come and we're not ready to play.”

Smart’s message was short and effective. VCU (17-5, 8-2) picked up right where it left off on both ends of the floor and avoided the ultimate letdown game by hammering Towson (0-22, 0-10) 67-42 in front of a small crowd of 974.

The Rams battered, bruised and flat out beat a down – but not out – Tigers team with an offense that was on point and a defense that was even better.

For just the third time in school history, VCU held a third-straight opponent to under 50 points. The Rams made it difficult for Towson to get up the floor, forcing 24 turnovers, including 14 steals.

“They feast on teams that don't dribble and pass it well,” Tigers coach Pat Skerry said. “That's what they do, and we certainly don't do that well.

“That's like throwing a match in gasoline.”

Brandenberg exploded off the bench with a team-high 16 points and four steals. Entering Wednesday night’s game, he had missed 37 of his last 45 shot from the field. Against an undone Towson defense, Brandenberg moved a step towards avoiding his own version of a sophomore slump – a name coined to describe second-year players who exceeded in their first year but struggle a year later.

“It felt good, I've been slumping the last couple of games, everybody knows,” a chipper Brandenberg said. “So it felt good to get into the swing of things and knock down shots.”

VCU got more than half of its scoring off the bench from a couple of unlikely names. Treveon Graham scored 13 points, Jarred Guest added eight points and Teddy Okereafor chipped in four.

“It was nice to get contributions from a lot of guys off the bench,” Smart said. “Our young guys, our freshmen, came in and all did some really good things.”

The third-straight double-digit victory capped off a stretch of six games in 14 days for the Rams, who visit Georgia State Saturday.

At the end of the day it was just another road-win for a streaking VCU team progressing by the minute, and another loss for a Towson program searching for its first win in 41 games.

“We didn't want to be that team's first win; we didn't want that to be on us,” Brandenberg said. “So we took a lot of pride in that.” CT