February 3, 2010

NIXON, BENCH LEAD RAMS TO 73-60 ROAD WIN AT UNC WILMINGTON
Box Score

WILMINGTON, N.C. – Consider this: Every Virginia Commonwealth University men’s basketball head coach that has won their first trip to Trask Coliseum has made a trip to the NCAA Tournament that same year.

First, it was Sonny Smith in 1996, then Anthony Grant in 2007, is Shaka Smart next?

The first part of that equation came on Wednesday night as junior Ed Nixon (St. Petersburg, Fla.) led a tremendous effort from the bench to lead the Black & Gold (16-5, 8-4 CAA) to a critical 73-60 road victory over the Seahawks of UNC Wilmington (7-16, 3-9 CAA).

Nixon poured in a career-high 19 points, 14 of which came in the second half, to lead a 42-point effort from the reserves. Classmate Joey Rodriguez (Oviedo, Fla.) (left) was stellar once again, tallying 18 points and a season-high five rebounds.

“I’m proud of the resilience our guys showed tonight,” Smart said. “There was definitely a stretch where we weren’t playing our game, particularly in the first half, but we stuck with it and our shots finally started to fall.”

The first 15 minutes was a little scary for the Black & Gold faithful as the Rams started just 4-of-18 from the field, before embarking on a 16-5 run, ignited by nine points from the free-throw line thanks to aggressiveness near the basket.

“It’s something we definitely work on a lot,” Smart said of the free-throwing shooting. “Every team does, but our guys have really done a great job of staying focused when they go to the free-throw line, especially in the last eight-10 games.”

After taking a nine-point lead into the break, the Seahawks got within four early in the second stanza thanks to five points from Chad Tomko.

That was the closest UNC Wilmington would come as Nixon scored nine of VCU’s next 16 points to spark an 18-9 run that would make the lead a double-digit one for good.

“I really can’t say enough about Ed,” Smart said. “He’s been outstanding for us all year. Not only in the games, but in practice as well, he always does the right thing. As a coaching staff, we really tried to instill a lot of confidence in him and when he plays with confidence he’s obviously tough to contain.”

Nine different players scored for the Black & Gold, who have now won seven of its past eight contests. Freshman Troy Daniels (Roanoke, Va.) and senior Kirill Pishchalnikov (Maykop, Russia) (right) tallied seven and six points respectively to join Nixon in the high-scoring attack off the bench.

“Our bench was tremendous tonight,” Smart said. “Really every guy we put in the game off the bench was focused and did what we needed them to do. When our starters aren’t having a great night, it’s nice to have the luxury of having high quality players to sub in.”

Chad Tomko was the only Seahawk in double-figures with 11 points, while John Fields added nine points and 11 rebounds in the loss.

Junior Larry Sanders (Fort Pierce, Fla.) pulled down double-digit rebounds for the fifth straight game with 10 rebounds, but was held scoreless for the first time since a season-opening win over Citadel last season (Nov. 16, 2008).

The Rams will now look forward to a big-time CAA showdown with archrival Old Dominion on Saturday at 4 p.m. Al Koken and Mark Tillman will bring you all the action on Comcast SportsNet.