RICHMOND, Va. – The Gardner-Webb University men's basketball team was bested by the Rams of Virginia Commonwealth University on Saturday afternoon by a final score of 87-73. Five different Runnin' Bulldogs dropped double-digits despite the loss.
 
"I thought we had good ball movement. Said coach Craft. "They struggled to keep up with us in the first half just with our movement. That got us off to a good start. We did well defensively early on. We kept them off the glass early. Late in the second half they started to get us on the glass a and that made the difference. They clearly had a game plan to utilize their size where they were posting our guards. It was a game where we had to play smaller. With key players out, we had to play a four-guard lineup a lot and that hurt us."
 
Gardner-Webb was able to build a small lead early in the ballgame opening up to a 13-11 run in the opening seven minutes. The 'Dawgs did so behind early field goals from Quest Aldridge and Ademide Badmus, and threes from Caleb Robinson and Lucas Stieber. VCU's Christian Fermin and Sean Bairstow caught the Rams up to GWU holding a one-point lead with just under nine minutes to play. The Runnin' Bulldogs were able to take back a brief lead of their own with Badmus converting the three-point play. Following a foul, the Rams took it back making trio of three-throws. VCU went on an 11-6 run to in the final four minutes to take a 42-36 lead into the half.
 
The start of the second half saw buckets from DQ Nicholas and Julien Soumaoro as Gardner-Webb attempted to cut into the VCU lead. Despite the effort from GWU, the Rams went on a 20-9 run the first 10 minutes of the half. The Runnin' Bulldogs earned a sequence of stops that saw key shots fall including the first GWU three-pointer from Richards. With 8:21 to play the 'Dawgs trailed by just 10. VCU returned to scoring inside the arch to maintain their lead winning by a final of 87-73.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Five different 'Dawgs tallied double-digits in the game with Aldridge scoring 13, Badmus tallying a season high of 12, Stieber and Nicholas netting 11, and Caleb Robinson dropping 10. Richards tallied all of his points in the second half tying Soumaoro with seven in the game. Soumaoro continues to lead the 'Dawgs in scoring with 211. Stieber led the Runnin' Bulldogs in rebounds collecting six.
 
UP NEXT
The Runnin' Bulldogs will get their Big South Conference schedule underway on Jan. 6 at High Point University on 2:00 p.m. GWU will return home on Wednesday, Jan. 10 to host Charleston Southern University at 7:00 p.m.