RICHMOND, Va. – Two things that weren’t always a given this season happened for VCU in Saturday’s 75-60 win over George Mason. Considering the up and down season they have had and the slugfest that much of the game was, they couldn’t have come at a much better time.
For about 34 minutes, the Rams and the Patriots slugged it out. The game went back and forth, with teams trading runs and the lead in a grind-it-out style after the first couple of minutes were played at a fast pace. VCU got plenty of second chances, but didn’t make much of them, so the game remained a close one. Then it all changed.
With the game tied at 53, Brandon Rozzell hit three-pointers on three straight possessions, and shortly thereafter a one-possession game suddenly became a ten-point game. Rozzell mixed in a rebound and steal during that stretch, coming alive the way one might normally expect a shooter who comes off the bench to.
Rozzell is a very capable shooter, and he entered the game shooting over 42 percent from deep on the season. But there were times this season where the junior guard was struggling and couldn’t hit much. The consistency has generally been there more than his first two seasons, but he came up big at just the right time on Saturday.
“He had 14 points for the game, but it seemed like he had 30, because every shot was huge and every shot was when we needed it most,” said head coach Shaka Smart.
Rozzell moved to the bench in mid-February after starting 17 straight games, a move that always has the potential to backfire. In his case, it came after he didn’t hit a three-point shot in the first four games of the month. But the hometown kid has responded well.
“Brandon knows he’s going to play a lot of minutes whether he starts or comes off the bench,” Smart said. “We’ve said all year that Ed Nixon is like a starter even though he was coming off the bench. He’s a guy that plays with a tremendous energy, and it’s nice to have that whether he’s starting or coming off the bench.”
The second thing that hasn’t been a given this season is one that might seem strange. Larry Sanders, a two-time Defensive Player of the Year, is capable of putting up double-doubles on a consistent basis. But this season he’s had games where he seems non-existent and even where he puts up good numbers but they’re quiet points and rebounds. Saturday’s win was none of those, and it made a difference.
Sanders posted a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds and blocked four shots. More than that, he was perhaps the best example of a Ram that was energized by Rozzell’s shooting that changed the game, because he looked even more assertive down the stretch once the Rams opened up the lead.
“Joey (Rodriguez) has had his conversations with Larry, as have a lot of his teammates just about what we need from him for this tournament,” said Smart. “Larry’s responded really well. We’re certainly going to need that from Larry tomorrow.”
The coaching staff feels that if Sanders plays more like this, they’re very hard to beat. He’s improved offensively after he was largely a complementary player for his first two seasons, and he’s starting to evolve into the kind of player some in the conference think he can be, especially since he’s still a defensive presence even if he didn’t put up quite the number of blocked shots that he did his first two seasons.
“That kind of defensive presence is why he’s been so successful, why he’s first team all-conference, and why I think he’s going to be a very fine NBA player one day,” said George Mason head coach Jim Larranaga.
With Rozzell’s shooting and Sanders playing a solid game to go with their good defense, VCU got past in-state rival George Mason. They’ll need something similar on Sunday to get past arch-rival Old Dominion into the championship game on Monday night.
