Spring Break
Rams defeat Brown, can't hang on at No. 5 Blue Devils
Chris Smith
Issue date: 11/18/08 Section: Sports
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Friday night at the Ryan Center, the University of Rhode Island men's basketball team opened its regular season with a 76-74 win over Brown University.
Sunday afternoon the Rams played another close game as they came up short against nationally ranked Duke University, 82-79.
The Rams shot just 39.1 percent from the court, but were able to turn it on late against Brown in a game that featured 10 ties and seven lead changes.
"I thought it was a dogfight of a game," head coach Jim Baron said. "This is a team that's very physical and aggressive. The shots weren't falling early."
Senior guard Jimmy Baron led the Rams with 17 points, all of which came in the second half. Eight of those points came late in the game to re-take the lead.
"Tale of two halves offensively and defensively," Baron said. "Brown came out and played a great game. I think that Kahiem, myself, and some of our other energy guys finished the game out strongly."
Two other Rams hit double figures as senior forward Kahiem Seawright tallied 15 points and junior guard Keith Cothran added 16.
Brown dominated in the paint outscoring the Rams 44-20. The Bears also shot 50 percent for the game.
"We got to do a much better job on the defensive end," Coach Baron said. "To be honest we really didn't know what they were running. We didn't really scout them, we didn't have a lot of time to figure out what they were doing."
The Rams turned the ball over just three times and outscored Brown 12-2 in points off turnovers keeping them in the game.
"I thought we did a good job of not turning the ball over," coach Baron said. "There were a lot of inexperienced guys out there. We're gonna learn as we move forward."
The first half was dominated by Brown, who shot over 50 percent and led by as many as nine points. But the Rams cut the lead trailing only 33-29, despite shooting 31.6 percent for the half.
The Rams came out strong in the second half, shooting 50 percent from field and 17-20 from the line. The Bears kept the pressure as URI battled from behind for most of the second half. The Bears took a 64-59 lead with 6:44 to play when the Rams took over. Baron hit a three-pointer with just less than two minutes to play to cap off a 12-1 Rhody run that put them in the lead, 71-65.
