URI gets 2nd win vs. San Fran
Russell leads Rams to easy win at Mohegan Sun
The University of Rhode Island men’s basketball team broke even during its stay at Mohegan Sun and is feeling the beginnings of a heater after a second consecutive strong performance.
The Rams beat San Francisco 84-71 on Sunday in their finale at the season-opening Bubbleville event, two days after the Dons shocked No. 4 Virginia. URI heads home with a 2-2 record, following up two straight losses with two wins in a row.
“I thought that was an outstanding performance in backto-back days, particularly on the defensive end,” URI coach David Cox said. “We’ve come a long way in five days. We played as a team tonight on both ends of the floor.”
The season began with defeats against Arizona State and Boston College for the program’s first 0-2 start since 2012. It was an early flash point for an inexperienced team.
“I’ll be honest with you – after our loss to Boston College, I probably didn’t handle that too well postgame,” Cox said. “The following morning, we met prior to everything – prior to our COVID tests and breakfast and all that. We met and I let them know, ‘We’re looking forward, not backwards, and that if we continue to trust one another and play together – particularly on the defensive end – we’ll be capable of reaching our goals. It was just two early games against two really good opponents.’ I thought the guys responded really well to that conversation.”
Just as they did on Saturday against South Florida, the Rams set the first-half tone with tight defense. San Francisco shot only 29 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes and - more importantly – 25 percent from 3-point range. In the upset of Virginia, the Dons sizzled from outside, making 13 of 28 3-pointers. The Rams jumped to a 9-2 cushion in the early going and stayed in control as the Dons slogged through a nearly six-minute scoring drought.
“Friday was a really emotional game for us,” San Francisco coach Todd Golden said. “Rhode Island played well. They obviously got to the foul line nearly every possession of the game, it felt like. They just had a better effort than we did. I don’t want to take anything away from them. I don’t think we had the same juice as Friday. Rhode Island is a good program. They’re a Tournament team.”
The only hot shooting stretch of the night for the Dons allowed them to get within a point at 20-19, but the Rams got 3-pointers from Malik Martin and Fatts Russell to regain breathing room. They led 38-28 at halftime.
There was an even more emphatic response in the second half. San Francisco made it a fivepoint game with 13:20 left. A driving layup by Jermaine Harris started a 12-0 run that allowed the Rams to pull away. Russell scored four points from the free-throw line, Jalen Carey scored on the break and freshman Ishmael Leggett ended the surge with four straight points.
The Rams needed one more answer down the stretch. San Francisco used an 8-0 run to make it a nine-point game and later got it to eight. URI stayed in front with the help of a 3-pointer by D.J. Johnson and free throws from Russell, Leggett and Makhi Mitchell.
“Our communication was really good tonight,” Cox said. “That’s a tough, tough team to defend. They run that Princeton offense with great pace and they’ve got tremendous shooters. We really focused on trying to keep the ball in front of us tonight and close out to the 3-point line. I thought we were really effective at that.”
There were hints of the Dons’ 3-point prowess in the second half but they needed a whopping 40 attempts to make 11 shots from deep. They finished at 34 percent from the field overall. URI was at 46 percent and excelled at the free-throw line for the second straight night, hitting 34 of 40.
Russell paced the Rams for the third straight game, scoring 21 points and handing out four assists. Antwan Walker tallied a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Carey and Leggett scored 11 each, the first games in double figures for both newcomers.
For the second straight game, TV cameras caught the Rams dancing and celebrating on the bench, a sign of quickly-developing chemistry.
“When you stay in a bubble with guys for a week straight, you’ve got to like them at some point,” Russell said with a laugh. “We’ve been with each other, it feels like 24/7. We built our chemistry through this bubble and we got tight doing it.”