PEORIA, Ill ? After experiencing one of his worst games of the year in Bradley's BracketBuster victory last season in Richmond, VCU junior guard Eric Maynor turned in a dominating performance in the return game Saturday night at Carver Arena, finishing with a career-best 30 points and seven assists while leading the Rams (8-3) to a 79-64 road win against Bradley (7-5) in front of 11,117 at Carver Arena.
Playing without its all-star point guard Daniel Ruffin the entire second half due to an aggravation to the abdominal strain that has hampered him the last two weeks, Bradley lost its second straight non-conference home game for the first time since the 2002-03 season. The 15-point margin of defeat was Bradley's worst in a home game since 74-65 setback to Missouri Valley Conference rival Creighton Jan. 26, 2005 and the worst in a non-conference game at Carver Arena since a 68-49 loss to Detroit in the first round of the 2001 NIT.
Ruffin is the only active player in the nation with 1,000 career points and 500 career assists and he entered the game leading the Braves in scoring at 15.1 points per game. With Ruffin limited to four points and three assists in 12 first-half minutes, however, sophomore guard Andrew Warren picked up some of the scoring slack with a team-high 18 points. Senior guard Jeremy Crouch added 13 points and junior forward Theron Wilson posted his first career double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
VCU guard Jamal Shuler chipped in with 13 points and forward Michael Anderson added 10 points for the Rams to complete the double-digit scoring.
Bradley got off to a good start and took a 22-13 lead with 8:13 left in the first half on a Warren putback basket. But after a Warren 3-pointer with 6:30 left in the half again gave the Braves a nine-point lead, 27-18, Maynor rallied his team. The Rams point guard scored nine points during an 18-7 surge to close the half, which ended with his 25-foot 3-pointer to give VCU a 36-34 lead at the break.
After a quick exchange of points left VCU with a 43-40 lead with 17:05 left in the game, the Rams hit Bradley with a 16-3 run to break the game open. Leading 59-43 after a Larry Sanders slam with 12:16 left, the Rams never let Bradley back in the game by keeping its lead between 12 and 17 points the rest of the way.
Bradley entered the game forcing more than 17 turnovers per game, but VCU committed only seven turnovers for the game, including just two in the second half. Although Bradley's 14 turnovers were below its season average, the Rams made the most of their opportunities by outscoring the Braves 15-5 off turnovers.
Bradley finished the night shooting a season-low 35.1 percent, including just 6-for-18 (.333) from 3-point range. After a slow start, VCU ended at 47.0 percent (31-66) from the field, including 8-for-15 (.533) from behind the arc.
After going into the holidays by posting a 1-3 record against teams that played in last year's NCAA Tournament -- #9 Michigan State, at Wright State, at #16 Butler and VCU ? Bradley will have a week off before opening the Valley slate Dec. 29 against UNI at Carver Arena. Tickets for Saturday's game versus the Panthers range from $8-18 and may be purchased in person at the Carver Arena Box Office during regular business hours or online at www.bubraves.com.
