Through the journey of a long season, there will be adverse situations that arise and a champion-caliber team must stand up to them. That’s exactly what the VCU Rams were facing Saturday night as they hosted their longtime rival, the ODU Monarchs at the Stuart S. Siegel Center. The Black and Yellow came into this game on a two-game losing streak to both Purdue Boilermakers and the Tennessee Volunteers respectively. In their last meeting, the Monarchs defeated the Rams in Norfolk 62-52, scoring 42 points in the second half. But the Rams pulled out the win here, beating ODU 69-57.

The Monarchs took the fight right to VCU in the first half. They were scrappy and played with chips on their shoulders to start the game and it rattled the Rams to some degree. VCU shot abysmally from the field and missed wide-open shots that usually are made. The Rams starters looked out of sync and in desperate need of a spark.

ODU led at halftime 29-28 but, despite the one-point deficit, the game was still going in VCU’s favor. While they were missing assignments on defense and shots weren’t going down, they were still only down by one point. All the Rams had to do in the second half was pick up their defensive intensity and execute at a more efficient rate on offense… and they did.

In the second half, VCU settled down and began to put its stamp on the game. Midway through, head coach Mike Rhoades gave his bench some extended minutes and his players didn’t disappoint. Guards Keshawn Curry and Malik Crowfield came in and knocked down shots with a much-needed 8-0 run that gave the black and yellow a 12-point lead. The Siegel Center crowd began to unleash and it started to look like the Rams would pull away.

ODU began to draw close late in the fourth and cut the lead to six.

Rhoades called a timeout before any momentum could be changed however and began to give the ball down low to Rams center Marcus Santos-Silva who hit two straight buckets in the paint and made two key defensive stops in the paint. This kept the Monarchs at bay.

From that point on the Rams closed out the ballgame with their free throws and won the game 69-57.

Coach Rhoades appreciates games like this because it shows that the team has grown to withstand and overcome adversity. He’d love to see his team go out there and have every game wrapped up in the first quarter but he understands it’s not reality and these kinds of wins go a long way in developing the mystique of a great basketball team.

This win improves the Rams to 7-2 as they host Missouri State Sunday, Dec. 15. This loss drops the Monarchs to 3-7 as they ready themselves to go on the road and face the Illinois Fighting Illini Sunday, Dec. 14.

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