Final score: VCU 90, Saint Louis 78.
Location: The Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Current records: VCU 26-7. SLU 21-12.
In a nutshell: The first half was played at a furious pace as both teams raced up and down the floor. VCU came out of it with a five-point lead, VCU 44, SLU 39. The Rams shot at eye-popping 65.4 percent. BUT, they allowed the Billikens to shoot at 57.7 percent. No doubt, Coach Mike Rhoades pointed out that defensive lapse at halftime.
And, VCU's defense was better in the second half, except for after the Rams pushed their lead to 25 points and the Billikens Scored some easy points in the last five minutes.
Overall, the Rams made 10 steals, the Billikens made five. VCU outrebounded SLU, 37-to-30. In points-off-of-turnovers, VCU had 24, SLU had 16. SLU simply couldn't focus its defense one or two scorers, because VCU had five players in double figures.
Nunn scored 18 points, grabbed three rebounds and blocked three shots. Johns scored 16 points, got nine rebounds, made three assists and got four steals. Baldwin scored 13 points, snatched five boards and dished for six assists. Watkins came off the bench for 15 points, five rebounds and three steals. Shriver also came off the bench. He scored 11 points, pulled down three boards and made two assists.
Baldwin set the tone early by scoring eight points in the first eight minutes. Throughout the game the Rams looked fast and self-assured. They led for 35:11 of the game's 40 minutes. This tilt's MVP was probably shared -- Baldwin and Johns.
BOX SCORE
NEXT UP: In the A-10 tournament's final game #1 VCU will face #2 Dayton tomorrow afternoon (Sun., Mar. 12). Tipoff at 1 p.m. TV: CBS.
