College Basketball 3/29/10 CBI Finals (Best of 3)
Virginia Commonwealth Rams (25-9) (CAA)-Saint Louis Billikens (23-11) (A 10)

By Mark-Monday, March 29th 2010 7 PM EST
Line-Virginia Commonwealth-10

In a game within a game, Virginia Commonwealth ran away from Boston U with a dominating second half 88-75. The Terriers took the fight to the Rams in the opening 20 minutes and took a one point lead in to the break. That was their high point of the night as VCU began the second stanza on a 9-0 run to pull away. Both teams shot the ball well but BU didn't take care of it as Virginia Commonwealth forced 17 turnovers and managed 12 steals making the Terriers pay for the majority. The trio of Bradford Burgess (20), Joey Rodriguez (19) and Larry Sanders (18) provided the offensive fireworks with all hitting at a 50% clip or better.

Saint Louis ended the first half on a 9-1 run to take a nine point lead in to the break and carried that to a 69-59 win over Princeton. This was more points than most expected from two defensive minded clubs but the Billikens broke the Tigers backs with 55% shooting. With the game fairly even other wise Princeton was forced to foul and SLU was a sub par 17 of 27. Although never able to completely put this game away their slowdown, milk the clock offense did the job as Princeton was fighting the clock with ten minutes left. Kwamain Mitchell scored a game high 21 points, closely followed by Willie Reed with a 20 point, game high ten rebound performance.

Rams offense: 76 ppg 15 apg 37 rpg 46%
Rams defense: 67 ppg 12 apg 35 rpg 43%
SLU offense: 63 ppg 13 apg 34 rpg 44%
SLU defense: 60 ppg 10 apg 36 rpg 40%

No secret what Saint Louis will try to do against a high scoring Rams club. Controll the pace and force the Rams in to the half court. Of course, VCU wants speed up the pace and draw the Billikens out of their comfort zone. The game could very well be decided by which team can play the other's style better. Two solid teams with too many points.