The Good 5 Cent Cigar

Issue date: 1/29/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Madelin Ortiz Freshman Steve Mejia makes a drive to the hoop at last night's game against Temple University. The Rams won 67-59.

Media Credit: Madelin Ortiz Junior Ben Eaves charges past Temple University's player in an attempt to make a shot at last night's game won by eight points.

01/29/09 - The University of Rhode Island men's basketball team earned its third conference win of the season last night as the Rams defeated Temple University 67-59.

Senior forward Kahiem Seawright led the Rams with 17 points, five rebounds and three assists to win a tough, slow-paced game, improving their conference record to .500 on the season.

"We're gonna play teams that are going to slow the game down," Seawright said. "We have to find ways to win and I think today we did a good job of that."

Sophomore guard Marquis Jones turned in a perfect shooting night, hitting both of his free throw attempts and converting all three of his field goal attempts. He also had six assists and turned in a solid defensive performance slowing down Temple guard Dionte Christmas in the second half.

"I wanted the assignment," Jones said. "I wanted him to drive. I didn't want him to shoot at all. As a team, we slowed him down."

Jimmy Baron added 13 points on just 4-of-13 shooting. Ben Eaves provided some solid minutes off the bench scoring nine points.

"I thought Christmas was terrific and I thought in the second half we did a much better job on him," coach Baron said. "We battled them and I thought we got good minutes off the bench, and that was positive for us."

In the first half, both teams came out shooting strong, knocking down their perimeter shots. Christmas came out on fire, converting his first four three-point attempts. The Rams kept pace shooting 5-of-7 from beyond the arc in the half.

After a deep Christmas three-pointer to tie the game at 22, Eaves and junior Delroy James converted on back-to-back threes to put Rhody up 28-22 with 5:51 remaining in the half.

Rhody shot 57.7 percent to Temple's 50 percent in the first half. Eaves led all Rams scorers with nine and Christmas led all scorers with 14 at the break. The Rams took a 36-28 into the half after a Seawright dunk to end the first half of action.

During the second half, the Rams continued to build off their late momentum. Ulmer slammed down an alley-oop pass from Mejia bringing the crowd to their feet.

Temple came storming back on a 14-2 run capped off by a Christmas three-pointer to tie the game at 53. Rhody answered scoring the next six points to put them back in front 59-53.

URI held Temple to just one field goal in the last 10 minutes of the game and played good defense down the stretch to secure the 67-59 victory.

"I think our guys were real focused on the game plan of what we need to do," Baron said. "The guys did a real good job of being solid on the defensive end."

URI shot 51 percent for the game and outscored Temple 34-20 inside the paint. The Rams held Temple to just 39 percent shooting on the night.

The Rams now stand at 14-7 on the season and 3-3 in Atlantic 10 conference. This was the first time URI won a game scored in the 60s.

Rhody will host LaSalle University Saturday. Tip-off time is set for 2 p.m.

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