The United Horseman's Association Equestrian Team from Virginia will highlight Saturday's second annual Horse and Carriage Parade down Strawberry Lane in Buckhannon.
The event is sponsored by Mike Ross, a longtime businessman and former legislator; and Ike Morris, founder of Waco Oil and Gas.
"The West Virginia Strawberry Festival Board is thrilled that they are once again sponsoring this great event," said Jody Light, the board's sponsorship chair, about Ross and Morris. "We're proud to have them help with this for the second time, and we look forward to having a spectacular Horse and Carriage Parade to help kick off this year's Strawberry Festival."
The parade and the Wild West Show on Saturday will be part of the first weekend of the 72nd annual West Virginia Strawberry Festival. The parade will step off at 5 p.m., and it will feature a variety of horses and carriages. Units are expected from West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland.
The UHA Equestrian Team will serve at the honor unit in the parade. The 16-member team will be carrying flags and delighting parade-goers with its well-groomed and well-trained horses.
A total of $2,000 in prize money will be awarded to winning participants, along with a variety of awards. Taking top honors at the 2012 parade was the carriage-and-horse team owned by Bob Pattison from Avella, Pa.
Throughout the day, downtown Buckhannon will be filled with live musicians, and Upshur County CEOS clubs will have plenty of food and baked goods for sale.
In addition, the Wild West Show will take place at Jawbone Park in downtown Buckhannon at 11 a.m., 12:30, 2 and 3 p.m. Trick-riding specialist Shadow Montag will perform as part of the Wild West show, which also will feature a shootout and trick roping to entertain visitors.
Stagecoach, carriage rides and pony rides will be available from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and again from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday.
A Barnyard Bingo is set in the grassy area next to the Stockert Youth Center on Saturday following the parade.
Open-case performers will be scattered throughout the downtown area on Saturday between 11 a.m. and 4:45 p.m. James Snyder will perform in front of the Hunter Law Offices at 11 a.m. Ricky Mortis and the Stiffs will perform in front of the FC Bank parking lot at 11 a.m. Richard Dean will be at the corner of Main and Spring streets at 11 a.m., followed by Robert Russell and the band at 2 p.m. The Shanty Town Circus Troop will be in the town square at 2 p.m. Cross Generations will also be at the corner of Main and Spring streets at 1 p.m.
Another event, the Queen's Ball, will take from 9 p.m. to midnight Saturday at the Buckhannon Moose Club. Tickets are $25 per couple and $15 for singles. Rick K and the All-Nighters will be the musical entertainment for the evening. Dress for the evening is semi-formal.
On Sunday, a Draft Horse Pull will be at the Toby Bennett Farm. This will be the first of dozens of festival events slated through May 19 at the 72nd annual West Virginia Strawberry Festival.
The carnival will open at 6 p.m. Monday in downtown Buckhannon. The Opening Ceremonies will be held at noon on the plaza of the Upshur County Courthouse.
More information about the festival is available by calling 304-472-9036 or visiting www.wvstrawberryfestival.com.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ? Delta Air Lines will start paying a quarterly dividend and buy back some of its shares ? investor-friendly moves that are common in other industries but rare for airlines.
Delta said on Wednesday that it will pay a quarterly dividend of 6 cents per share starting Sept. 10 for people who own the stock on Aug. 9. A quarterly dividend of that size would yield 1.3 percent per year compared with Tuesday's closing stock price.
The airline also plans to buy back $500 million of its stock by mid-2016. Buybacks have the effect of returning cash to shareholders because the remaining shares they own represent a bigger slice of the company and its profits.
Of the large U.S. airlines, only Southwest Airlines Co. pays a dividend ? it is one penny per share per quarter.
Delta last paid a dividend in 2003. Airlines then were reeling from a slow economy, travel worries because of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and high costs left over from better times.
Delta went through bankruptcy protection from 2005 to 2007, and its shareholders from that period were wiped out. United, US Airways, and Northwest all went through bankruptcies in the 2000s, too. American Airlines is in bankruptcy protection now, and plans to emerge as part of a merger with US Airways.
Delta bought Northwest in an all-stock deal in 2008, and it has posted annual profits for three years in a row. It has been using the money to pay down debt. It said its adjusted debt was just $11.7 billion at the end of last year, down from $17 billion at the end of 2009.
Delta said it's on track to owe $10 billion by the end of this year. That's a goal it had originally set for late 2012, before moving the target date back to early this year, and now by the end of this year.
The carrier said its five-year plan calls for it to "achieve and maintain" adjusted debt of $7 billion.
The company measures its adjusted debt by adding up what it owes, plus rent for airplanes and other items, and then subtracts its cash. It reported $3.4 billion in cash at the end of 2012.
Delta has hinted since last year that it was considering a dividend as a next step after it pays down debt, and it said last month that it would have an announcement around this time.
Delta Air Lines Inc. is based in Atlanta. Its shares rose 52 cents, or 2.9 percent, to $18.60 in morning trading after rising as high as $18.73 earlier in the day. FactSet says that is its highest level since February 2008.
An American flag attached to a barrier near the site of the Boston Marathon bombings. (Dylan Stableford/Yahoo ??
NEW YORK?New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says he wasn't surprised about the Boston Marathon bombings?just that they didn't happen sooner.
"When something like Boston happens, it's a shock to the public psyche, but not to us," Kelly said at the Atlantic's New York Ideas Festival on Tuesday. "We thought something like this would happen sooner?we've seen these types of disaffected radicalized young men target us."
Kelly, who created the country's first municipal counterterrorism bureau in the wake of 9/11, said the New York Police Department has thwarted 16 terror plots since the attack on the World Trade Center, including one from Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, who pleaded guilty in February to plotting to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank. The 21-year-old Bangladesh native was arrested in October in an FBI sting.
He also pointed to Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani immigrant who failed to detonate an explosive-laden SUV parked in Times Square in 2010.
"There's a constant stream of individuals trying to come here and kill us," Kelly said. There's a "whole array of threats, and there's been no diminishment."
Kelly said "sheer luck," combined with the city's investment in counterterrorism?including a global intelligence network with New York City detectives stationed in 11 foreign cities?has helped, as have thousands of cameras positioned throughout the city.
"Our camerawork is very important," Kelly said. The surveillance "SWAT cameras," he added, are equipped with video analytics software that can detect, for example, someone leaving an unattended bag in a crowded street.
Kelly said the NYPD has been working with the Joint Terrorism Task Force to study the "process of radicalization" that turns "unremarkable young men" into terrorists.
"They indoctrinate themselves," Kelly said. "Then they go into a jihadization stage ... we've been looking at this."
"New York is the No. 1 target in this country, and if you look at [terrorism] as theater, this is the world's biggest stage," he added. "So far so good, but there are no guarantees."
Economic growth and strict rule have kept the same government in power in Malaysia for more than 50 years, but calls for greater accountability are getting louder.
By Simon Roughneen,?Correspondent / May 3, 2013
Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak (c.) waves a national flag as he sings patriotic songs with supporters during an election campaign rally in Rawang, outside Kuala Lumpur, Sunday. Najib, head of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN, or National Front) coalition, has played up instability fears should the opposition win the upcoming election, and points out that Malaysia's economy has grown 5 percent a year in recent times.
Bazuki Muhammad/Reuters
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Malaysia's ruling coalition has since 1957 steered the country between race riots, a brief and stormy marriage with Singapore, and a communist insurgency to the country's position today as one of the great economic success stories of the developing world.
Skip to next paragraph Simon Roughneen
Southeast Asia Correspondent
Simon Roughneen is a southeast Asia correspondent, filing for the Monitor since September 2011. He's based in Myanmar (Burma) but travels the region as much as possible. In the past, he's reported from several countries in Africa, from Pakistan, and has been on shorter assignments to Haiti, India, Israel, Korea, Kosovo, Lebanon, Turkey, and the West Bank.?You can visit his personal website at?www.simonroughneen.com.?
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But now its 56-year run in power since independence from Great Britain could be headed for the rocks. Malaysians will vote in a new parliament on May 5, and polls show a coalition led by former government insider Anwar Ibrahim has a shot at winning control of Southeast Asia's third largest economy.
?This election is the first one that is not a foregone conclusion,? says Clive Kessler of the University of New South Wales. Despite economic growth under the current government, perception of corruption and growing calls for more democracy and greater accountability have dogged it, giving the opposition a foothold from which to challenge the government.?
The government has responded to such calls with some political reforms that it hopes can serve as a ballast against a swing to the opposition.?Those changes, such as relaxing media restrictions, might not be enough.
Anwar's Pakatan Rakyat (PKR, People's Alliance) opposition has campaigned on an anticorruption message, pledging ?ubah,? or change, and hoping that enough of the 2.6 million first time voters ? a fifth of the total ? will back that message to swing the election away from the governing parties.
Prime Minister Najib Razak, head of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN, or National Front) coalition, has played up instability fears should the opposition win, and points out that Malaysia's economy has grown 5 percent a year in recent times. "The strength of the economy is creating a feel-good factor among voters,? he said.
Changing society
The strong challenge to the current government has been building for some time. Middle class and younger Malaysians have increasingly expressed dissatisfaction that the government is not responding to the changing society fast enough. In 2008 the opposition made history by taking a third of seats available and by winning five of Malaysia's 13 regional governments, its best-ever result.
Penang,?a bustling electronics and tourism hub in the northwest,?was one of the five regions won. An crowd of thousands gathered on Friday evening in Georgetown, Penang's colonial-kitsch tourist draw, to listen to leaders of the Democratic Action Party, a key opposition component, in a final rally to make a final plea to voters.?Lim Guan Eng, the head of the party and a likely government minister should the opposition win on Sunday, says that the opposition can win, despite the prohibitive history. "People are sick of corruption, they want change. We have shown in Penang that we can govern," he told the Monitor.
But local BN magnate Teng Chang Yeow scoffs at the opposition's record in Penang: ?they are good at claiming, but the truth is FDI [foreign direct investment] has actually fallen 73 percent in the last two years. How can they hope to manage the national economy when they can't even look after a small state like Penang??
Malaysia-watchers predict that whatever happens, the handover might not be so smooth.
'Keep away'
For the most part, Malaysia has been politically-stable since around 1,000 people ? most of them Chinese-Malaysians ? were killed in 1969 race riots. But 2011 and 2012 rallies for changes to Malaysia's electoral system ended up with police firing teargas and water cannon at protestors in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, the country's biggest city. This year's election campaign has been marred by unexplained explosions and allegations of intimidation, sparking concerns that there could be trouble after Sunday's vote.
On Thursday night, the governing coalition held a charity event in Penang's historic Georgetown, doling out cans of Tiger beer to a small crowd listening as songstresses crooned Malay ballads and renderings of Celine Dion.
A BN supporter at the gig, who would not give his name, predicts trouble if the governing parties lose the election.??Keep away from KL [shorthand for Kuala Lumpur] next week if PKR wins. There will be problems there, violence on the streets maybe.?
?Najib has promised a peaceful handover, but he doesn't control those who might take to the streets, and even if he wins the election by a small majority, he will lose his position as party leader,? says author and professor Clive Kessler, who adds that a BN win could also see people on the streets.??If there are allegations of cheating, or if Barisan wins by a big margin, people might not believe that, and opposition supporters could protest,? he says.
On Friday, the prime minister denied allegations from opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim that his office had organized flights for 40,000 people ? many of them foreigners ? taking them from eastern Malaysia to vote in the vital Selangor constituency, which the governing coalition hopes, like in Penang, to retake from the opposition.
The charges sound wearyingly-familiar to some voters. Keira Cheong, one of the 25 percent of Malaysians of Chinese ancestry, sighs that ?there's been a lot of corruption, everyone knows, but nobody can ever do anything.? Friend Veronica Chai, who works in Penang's pharmaceutical sector, cuts in. ?Well we can vote at least, we at least need to try for change,? she asserts.
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis was found guilty Monday of misdemeanor counts of assault and false imprisonment stemming from a dispute with three women after a night out at a Hollywood club in 2011.
Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich said in a statement that after a two-week trial, a jury convicted the 40-year-old Francis of three counts of false imprisonment, one count of assault causing great bodily injury and one count of dissuading a witness. He faces a maximum of five years in prison. A hearing to schedule his sentencing was set for Wednesday.
Francis met the three women as they celebrated a college graduation at a the Supper Club in Hollywood on Jan. 29, 2011, took one of them by the hand as he left and took her to his limo, and the other two followed thinking Francis was giving them a ride to their car, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Francis took the women to his home and a dispute broke out when he tried to separate one from the other two, with Francis grabbing one of the women by the hair and throat and slammed her head into the floor.
After an investigation, the district attorney declined to file felony charges in the case and referred it to the city attorney, who filed the misdemeanor charges.
Previous phone numbers for Francis were disconnected, and neither he nor his attorneys could immediately be reached for comment.
Francis' company, GGW Brands LLC, filed for bankruptcy in February after years of legal troubles, listing more than $16 million in disputed claims.
Two scientists from the John Innes Centre have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society, the premier scientific accolade in the UK. Their breakthroughs in fundamental research have pioneered advances in antibiotic discovery and in crop improvement from which we all benefit.
Professor Mike Bevan pioneered methods for expressing foreign genes in plants that underpin the crop biotechnology industry. He instigated plant genome sequence analyses and has recently completed the first draft of the wheat genome. This work will accelerate breeding and genetic analysis of this globally important crop.
Professor Mervyn Bibb's research focus is on how soil bacteria such as Streptomyces make antibiotics. Nearly 80% of clinically used antibiotics are derived from these microorganisms. His breakthroughs assist drug companies in their quest to make new and improved antibiotics. A spin-out company based on his work has an antibiotic about to enter phase 2 clinical trials.
"Professors Bevan and Bibb have been key players in the development of JIC's research in molecular aspects of plant and microbial biology" said Professor Dale Sanders, director of the John Innes Centre.
"Although their research fields are seemingly disparate, Mike and Merv have both demonstrated the power that genetics can bring to a fundamental understanding of life."
"This research will set the stage for genetically-based translational advances that address national and global issues in the areas of food security and human health."
The Fellowship is the backbone of the Royal Society, made up of the most eminent scientists, engineers and technologists from the UK and the Commonwealth. Fellows are elected through a peer review process on the basis of excellence in science that culminates in a vote by existing Fellows.
Both newly elected JIC scientists have active research groups with long-term research plans to improve understanding in their field.
"I want to understand how plant growth is controlled and I am analysing the wheat genome to understand how hybridization influences gene stability and expression," said Professor Bevan.
Insights from this work will provide new ways to increase crop yields and breed new crops.
Professor Bibb is working on as-yet clinically unexploited antibiotics made by Streptomyces and their close relatives. He is exploring ways to engineer the bacteria to produce new and improved variants. Their ability to withstand emerging antibiotic resistance will be crucial.
"Election as a Fellow of the Royal Society would not have happened if it were not for the hard work and intellectual input of a large number of students, post-docs and visiting workers," said Professor Bibb.
"For both Mike and me, our achievements are based on the efforts of our respective research groups and we each have many people to thank for this recognition."
Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society, said:
"Science helps us to better understand ourselves and the natural world around us and has a huge role to play in future economic prosperity and the health of our planet and its 7 billion people. In the coming decades we are going to find ourselves more and more dependent on the solutions. Science can offer to grand challenges such as food shortages, climate change and tackling disease. These scientists who have been elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society have already contributed much to the scientific endeavour following in the footsteps of pioneers such as Newton, Darwin and Einstein and it gives me great pleasure to welcome them into our ranks."
###
Contact
Photos of the scientists and images representing their research area are available. Please contact Zoe Dunford at the JIC press office: +44 (0)1603 255111, 07768 164185, zoe.dunford@jic.ac.uk
Notes to editors
About the John Innes Centre
The John Innes Centre, http://www.jic.ac.uk, is a world-leading research centre based on the Norwich Research Park http://www.nrp.org.uk. The JIC's mission is to generate knowledge of plants and microbes through innovative research, to train scientists for the future, and to apply its knowledge to benefit agriculture, human health and well-being, and the environment. JIC delivers world class bioscience outcomes leading to wealth and job creation, and generating high returns for the UK economy. JIC http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/ is one of eight institutes that receive strategic funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
About BBSRC
BBSRC invests in world-class bioscience research and training on behalf of the UK public. Our aim is to further scientific knowledge, to promote economic growth, wealth and job creation and to improve quality of life in the UK and beyond.
Funded by the UK Government, and with an annual budget of around 445M, we support research and training in universities and strategically funded institutes. BBSRC research and the people we fund are helping society to meet major challenges, including food security, green energy and healthier, longer lives. Our investments underpin important UK economic sectors, such as farming, food, industrial biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.
For more information about BBSRC, our science and our impact see: http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk
For more information about BBSRC strategically funded institutes see: http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/institutes
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Royal Society elects 2 new Fellows from the John Innes CentrePublic release date: 3-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Two scientists from the John Innes Centre have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society, the premier scientific accolade in the UK. Their breakthroughs in fundamental research have pioneered advances in antibiotic discovery and in crop improvement from which we all benefit.
Professor Mike Bevan pioneered methods for expressing foreign genes in plants that underpin the crop biotechnology industry. He instigated plant genome sequence analyses and has recently completed the first draft of the wheat genome. This work will accelerate breeding and genetic analysis of this globally important crop.
Professor Mervyn Bibb's research focus is on how soil bacteria such as Streptomyces make antibiotics. Nearly 80% of clinically used antibiotics are derived from these microorganisms. His breakthroughs assist drug companies in their quest to make new and improved antibiotics. A spin-out company based on his work has an antibiotic about to enter phase 2 clinical trials.
"Professors Bevan and Bibb have been key players in the development of JIC's research in molecular aspects of plant and microbial biology" said Professor Dale Sanders, director of the John Innes Centre.
"Although their research fields are seemingly disparate, Mike and Merv have both demonstrated the power that genetics can bring to a fundamental understanding of life."
"This research will set the stage for genetically-based translational advances that address national and global issues in the areas of food security and human health."
The Fellowship is the backbone of the Royal Society, made up of the most eminent scientists, engineers and technologists from the UK and the Commonwealth. Fellows are elected through a peer review process on the basis of excellence in science that culminates in a vote by existing Fellows.
Both newly elected JIC scientists have active research groups with long-term research plans to improve understanding in their field.
"I want to understand how plant growth is controlled and I am analysing the wheat genome to understand how hybridization influences gene stability and expression," said Professor Bevan.
Insights from this work will provide new ways to increase crop yields and breed new crops.
Professor Bibb is working on as-yet clinically unexploited antibiotics made by Streptomyces and their close relatives. He is exploring ways to engineer the bacteria to produce new and improved variants. Their ability to withstand emerging antibiotic resistance will be crucial.
"Election as a Fellow of the Royal Society would not have happened if it were not for the hard work and intellectual input of a large number of students, post-docs and visiting workers," said Professor Bibb.
"For both Mike and me, our achievements are based on the efforts of our respective research groups and we each have many people to thank for this recognition."
Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society, said:
"Science helps us to better understand ourselves and the natural world around us and has a huge role to play in future economic prosperity and the health of our planet and its 7 billion people. In the coming decades we are going to find ourselves more and more dependent on the solutions. Science can offer to grand challenges such as food shortages, climate change and tackling disease. These scientists who have been elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society have already contributed much to the scientific endeavour following in the footsteps of pioneers such as Newton, Darwin and Einstein and it gives me great pleasure to welcome them into our ranks."
###
Contact
Photos of the scientists and images representing their research area are available. Please contact Zoe Dunford at the JIC press office: +44 (0)1603 255111, 07768 164185, zoe.dunford@jic.ac.uk
Notes to editors
About the John Innes Centre
The John Innes Centre, http://www.jic.ac.uk, is a world-leading research centre based on the Norwich Research Park http://www.nrp.org.uk. The JIC's mission is to generate knowledge of plants and microbes through innovative research, to train scientists for the future, and to apply its knowledge to benefit agriculture, human health and well-being, and the environment. JIC delivers world class bioscience outcomes leading to wealth and job creation, and generating high returns for the UK economy. JIC http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/ is one of eight institutes that receive strategic funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
About BBSRC
BBSRC invests in world-class bioscience research and training on behalf of the UK public. Our aim is to further scientific knowledge, to promote economic growth, wealth and job creation and to improve quality of life in the UK and beyond.
Funded by the UK Government, and with an annual budget of around 445M, we support research and training in universities and strategically funded institutes. BBSRC research and the people we fund are helping society to meet major challenges, including food security, green energy and healthier, longer lives. Our investments underpin important UK economic sectors, such as farming, food, industrial biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.
For more information about BBSRC, our science and our impact see: http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk
For more information about BBSRC strategically funded institutes see: http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/institutes
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
It was the last thing coach Shaka Smart wrote on the locker room board before leading his team out to play No. 20 Butler on Saturday. The Rams heeded his advice with their most dominating 40-minute performance of the season.
"Nobody's coming in here today and winning," Butler coach Brad Stevens said after the Rams, spurred on by a fast start and a deafening home crowd, won 84-52. "We didn't play well enough to even make it close, but that's a whole other story."
Troy Daniels scored 14 of his 20 points in the first half when VCU' forced 14 turnovers and turned them into 24 points on their way to a 45-21 lead. For the game, the Bulldogs tied their season high was 23 turnovers, leading to 34 points for VCU.
"You can always see the pressure on film, but once you've got to deal with it in live play, it's kind of hard to deal with," said Rams senior point guard Darius Theus, who had eight points, nine assists, two blocks and five of VCU's 17 steals.
"It was pretty intense out there tonight."
The meeting was a much anticipated rematch of their unlikely meeting in the national semifinals in Houston in 2011, which Butler won 70-62, and several of the Rams (23-6, 11-3 Atlantic 10) saw it as a chance to make a statement. Both schools also made the jump to the Atlantic 10 in the offseason, making the league a big winner in the conference realignment shuffle.
"That was a team who's been in the top 10 in the country. Now they're top 20," Theus said, "and we're still out to prove ourselves. We're in the A-10 and we're still trying to let everyone know we belong in the top."
It didn't take long.
The Rams, who didn't press with near the intensity they do now two years ago, seemed to overwhelm Butler right from the outset. The Bulldogs turned it over on three of their first five possessions, and 11 more times before getting to halftime.
The Bulldogs (22-7, 9-5) arrived averaging 13 turnovers per game.
The Rams, meanwhile, used all the extra possessions and the combination of Juvonte Reddic down low and Daniels from the outside ? sometimes way outside ? to pour on the offense as the Siegel Center grew deafening.
In a 28-8 run, Reddic scored nine points and Daniels had 11, including consecutive 3-pointers and then three free throws when he was hit while launching another shot from about 26 feet.
Butler seemed to figure the pressure out briefly, pulling within 31-17 on top scorer Rotnei Clarke's first field goal, a 3-pointer with 4:46 left, but 3-pointers by VCU's Rob Brandenburg and Graham highlighted a 14-4 run to make it 45-21.
Butler scored the first seven points after halftime to close within 17, and Smart called a quick timeout.
"He let us know that we're not letting up and we're not letting this lead go," Theus said. "Guys came back out and had that fire in their eyes."
Briante Weber and Treveon Graham each scored five points in a 10-4 run that followed and it was pretty much over, allowing the Rams to clinch one of the top four seeds in the conference tournament later this month.
Roosevelt Jones scored 14 points and Khyle Marshall had 13 for Butler.
"I haven't seen a team that fast yet," Stevens said. "I mean, Weber and Theus and Johnson, you can just go down the list. Brandenburg They can really get into the ball."
The Bulldogs forced only eight turnovers, leading to just two points.
Anticipation was high before the game, with some students even sleeping in tents outside to be sure to get their pick of seats once the doors opened, and once the ball was tipped, VCU was at its best.
Graham, Reddic and Weber all scored 11 points for the Rams.
Claarke, who came in averaging 17, finished with five on 2-for-8 shooting. He also had three turnovers.
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Public release date: 3-May-2013
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