Russell leads URI to overtime victory
PITTSBURGH — Fatts Russell, say hello to the nation.
The URI freshman guard scored 15 points, played locked down defense on Oklahoma freshman star guard Trae Young and hit a trio of timely 3-pointers in his NCAA Tournament debut, as No. 7 Rhode Island overcame the No. 10 Sooners, 83-78, in overtime Friday afternoon at PP&G Paints Arena.
“Coach [Dan Hurley] has a lot of confidence in me,” Russell said. “Every time I get in the game, he doesn’t tell me not to be myself. They tell me to be myself. My self is confidence. That’s really where the confidence comes from, Coach and my teammates.”
“He’s a competitive kid,” Hurley said. “What I told him last year, I told him when I recruited him: The only point guard I saw better than him at the Peach Jam last year was Trae Young, and he told me I was wrong about that and he was going to prove me wrong today, and he put on a show.”
Russell was a dynamic force in his 21 minutes of action, hitting big shots and dishing out three assists. He had two steals despite drawing the assignment of marking Young.
“First, I want to say Trae Young’s a very good player,” Russell said. “But we just tried to like contain them the whole time. We didn’t want to change our style of play and not be aggressive against him just because of who he is. We just tried to contain him and it worked.”
It took an overtime period and some white-knuckle time for the Rams against Oklahoma, but they gutted through to win a Round of 64 NCAA Tournament game for the second year in a row. E.C. Matthews hit two 3-pointers in
overtime and Cyril Langevine insured the victory with four free throws in the final 1:03.
“Such an exciting matchup, a thrilling game,” Hurley said. “Obviously, we had our chance at the end of regulation, but we showed the character of these guys, the character of the program by the way we responded in overtime and made big free throws and put the game away. So it’s about surviving and advancing, and what an exciting game to be part of.”
“I knew once I hit the free throws, the four three throws, I knew that would seal the game,” said Langevine, a 55 percent career free throw shooter. “So I went to the line with confidence and made the four free throws.”
Matthews dumped Young on a crossover move before hitting a 3-pointer that gave Rhody its first lead of overtime, and followed up with a deeper make with under a minute to play. The fifthyear senior finished with 16 points on 6-of-14 shooting.
“It’s what you dream about when you’re a little kid playing basketball outside, waking up early in the morning,” Matthews said. “To do it on the biggest stage, you know, it’s an honor. Just to be a part of making big shots for my teammates, it doesn’t get better than that.”
Young was quiet for stretches of the game, due to foul trouble and the amount of defensive attention he draws, but was still the engine that drove things for the Sooners. He had 28 points and seven assists to go along with six turnovers.
“Our goal going into the game, it wasn’t necessarily to try to keep him under a certain scoring number,” Hurley said. “It was about field goal attempts. And through regulation, our goal was to keep [him] to 15 shots or less. It felt like if we could funnel the ball to those others enough that we’d have a great chance to win.
“He only ended up taking 18 shots with the extra five minutes. We knew he would make incredibly tough shots. The kid has no weakness and it’s going to be an amazing NBA career ahead for him.”
The Rams used a 6-0 run that came in 12-second span to overcome a seven-point second half deficit. Matthews hit a 3-pointer to give URI a two-point lead, and Russell stole the ball from Young on the ensuing inbounds play.
Russell didn’t hesitate, rising up and draining a 3-pointer right in the face of the future lottery pick. The Sooners called a timeout after the disastrous turn of events.
Young and the Sooners redoubled their efforts after the Rams broke out offensively to take multiple seven-point leads. Young failed to hit a field goal for the first 16 minutes of the second half, being checked defensively by Russell and Dowtin.
The talented point guard, who at one point this year was on the National Player of the Year shortlist, turned it on in the final four minutes, scoring 11 points to force a overtime. Two free throws by Young tied the game at 69 with 15 seconds to play.
Dowtin short-armed a floater on URI’s final possession of regulation and Stan Robinson’s put-back attempt bounced on the rim before falling back to the court.
“I mean, the guys looked like they were excited to play five more minutes,” Hurley said. “We were having a great time out there. And we’ve won a lot this year. We’ve only lost seven games. Five of those games were games we could have won. You know, so we’re used to winning and we expected to win coming out of overtime.”
The Sooners rode the momentum of their game-tying run to end regulation and led for the first two minutes of overtime.
Langevine scored six of his 14 points in the extra five minute period. Matthews drove to the basket and delivered a wrap-around pass to Langevine that led to his first two made free throws. The sophomore big man, who was 0-for-2 from the line in regulation, saved all his makes for the big moment.