Richmond, Va.-Playing its third straight road game, Georgia State fell to first-place VCU, 71-54, Wednesday at the Siegel Center in Richmond, Va.
James Fields scored a career-high 13 points and Jihad Ali contributed eight points, seven rebounds and two blocks for the Panthers, who dropped their third straight to fall to 8-9 overall, 3-4 in the CAA. Dante Curry and Josh Micheaux added eight points each.
VCU won its fifth straight and improved to 9-0 at home as freshman Rob Brandenburg scored a career-high 23 points. The Rams improved to 14-5 overall and 6-1 in the CAA to sit atop the conference standings, tied with Hofstra.
"VCU is a very good team, and they were really good tonight on their home floor," said GSU head coach Rod Barnes, whose squad handed the Rams their only conference loss two weeks ago in Atlanta. "They were a different team tonight than the one we played in Atlanta. And we were, too. We let their pressure bother us, especially in the first half, and we let the game be played at their pace instead of ours."
The Panthers, still without starting point guard Devonta White, were hurt by 24 turnovers against VCU's press.
Brandenburg, the reigning CAA Rookie of the Week, topped the 20-point mark for the second time in three games. Jamie Skeen added 15 points and seven rebounds for the Rams.
"We knew Brandenburg was very capable," said Barnes. "He's playing with a lot of confidence right now, and he should - he has a lot of weapons around him. You try to double Skeen in the post, and you want to keep an eye on Joey Rodriguez and Bradford Burgess, and that opens up things for Brandenburg. He took advantage of his opportunities."
Both teams started slowly, and Georgia State held an early 9-6 lead midway through the first half before the Rams scored 12 straight to take an 18-9 lead. VCU extended its advantage to 35-18 at the intermission.
The Panthers opened the second half with a 12-3 run as Curry hit a pair of treys to pull GSU within eight points at 38-30 four minutes into the period. But the Rams answered with a 9-0 spurt to move ahead 47-30 and were able to maintain control from there.
The Panthers finally return home Saturday to host Delaware in a 2 p.m. contest at the GSU Sports Arena.
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