During every section of practice this week, Virginia Commonwealth coach Shaka Smart reminded his players that Northeastern has had the Rams' number recently.
Troy Daniels figured he heard it at least 10 times in one practice.
"He kept repeating it," Daniels said. "I was a victim the last two years. We just said, 'Not on us.' "
The Huskies had won four of the past five games with the Rams. That included two of the past three at the Siegel Center, where VCU wins at better than an 85 percent clip.
The Rams had trouble shaking the Huskies on Saturday night after opening a 13-point lead in the second half. This time, they weathered shaky foul shooting down the stretch and secured a 59-56 victory before the 15th consecutive sellout at the Siegel Center, which included about 40 former players who were saluted before the game as part of homecoming.
VCU (20-5, 11-2 CAA) won its ninth consecutive game, its 17th in the past 19 and kept pace with George Mason and Drexel atop the Colonial Athletic Association. It also pushed Northeastern (11-12, 7-6) down the ladder and pretty much left five teams in the race for four first-round byes in the CAA tournament.
The Rams seemed in control with a 57-49 lead with 1:07 remaining. VCU, though, missed the front end of three consecutive one-and-one opportunities, which opened the door for the Huskies to get within four.
Juvonte Reddic finally stopped the bleeding with two free throws with 29 seconds left. Jonathan Lee's 3-pointer 2 seconds from the end accounted for the final margin.
VCU was just 12 of 24 from the foul line.
"We'll be shooting a lot of free throws over the next few days," Smart said.
Daniels has been doing a lot of extra shooting, with a little more emphasis on holding his follow-through longer, and it's been paying off in confidence. The 6-foot-4 junior sharpshooter nailed 5 of 10 3-pointers and had 15 points.
He came in shooting 41.6 percent behind the arc in conference play and was 20 for 41 in his past five games.
"We know he's a dead-eye shooter," Northeastern coach Bill Coen said. "He got way too many open looks. Whether it was man or zone, we wanted to stay attached to him a little better."
The Huskies like to keep the score down with an aggressive zone. VCU had trouble with it early and fell behind by seven.
But Daniels nailed back-to-back treys to cap a 14-0 run that gave the Rams a 31-25 halftime lead. With early foul trouble to Bradford Burgess, Reddic (11 points, 11 rebounds) and Briante Weber, VCU got contributions from D.J. Haley (six points, four rebounds) and Treveon Graham (eight points, four rebounds, three steals).
"When you're on a winning streak, the question is can you continue getting better?" said Smart, whose team had 19 offensive rebounds. "It's much more challenging. Sometimes a loss has a way of refocusing you. We haven't lost in a month, which we're not going to apologize for that. We're glad we haven't lost.
"At the same time, we have to get better. . . . With a young team, it's a challenge because we've got a lot of guys in new roles. It's easy for them to sit back and say, 'Well, we've won nine in a row. Life is good.' That's not a champion's way to look at things.
"The reality is we're in first place, but we're not in first place alone, which at the end of the year is where we want to be. If we want to be champions, we must continue to get better."
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