Rams, Bears Win!
Sunday, February 26, 2012
To say that is has been a long and difficult season for the Rhody Rams and the Brown Bears would be an understatement. Both teams entered play Saturday in last place in their respective conferences having struggled through a variety of problems.
Both teams showed tremendous character and determination in front of their home crowds Saturday and it finally paid off. URI upset St. Louis 64-62 while the Bears crushed Columbia 94-78.
In Kingston, the Rams got off to a rocky start against the Billikens falling behind 12-2 out of the gates. It could have been worse were it not for freshman sensation Jonathan Holton (11 points, 8 rebounds)who scored URI’s first 6 points and came up with some key rebounds as well to prevent St. Louis from pulling away.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTHolton’s teammates settled down and trailed by 6, 37-31 at the half.
That would remain the deficit until the game’s final 7 minutes when the Rams would chip away at the St. Louis lead. A Nikola Malesevic (7 points, 9 rebounds) free throw tied the game at 56 with 4:21 to play. It was the first time Rhody pulled even with the Billikens since the score was 0-0.
Two more Malesevic free throws knotted the game at 62 with 1:47 to play setting the stage for the exciting finish.
Rhody’s 2-3 zone seemed to frustrate St. Louis all afternoon long, particularly in the second half where they held the Billikens to 30% shooting from the field (8 of 27). That included a pair of missed three point attempts in the game’s final minutes.
Billy Baron (13 points) would be the hero for URI. The coach’s son drained the game-winning jumper with 4.6 seconds left giving the Rams the first and only lead and the eventual two point win.
Orion Outerbridge scored a game-high 18 points for the Rams who improve to (6-23) overall and (3-11) in the Atlantic Ten. St. Louis drops to (22-6) on the season and (10-4) in league play.
The Rams host Fordham Wednesday night in their final home game of the season at the Ryan Center. A win by Rhode Island would lift them out of last place in the conference. However, the Rams have been mathematically eliminated from the A-10 Tournament as they trail both George Washington and Charlotte by 2 games in the standings with 2 games to play. Both the Colonials and the 49ers defeated Rhode Island earlier this season.
In Providence, it was a role-reversal for Brown and Columbia who had met two weeks earlier in New York in a game won handily by the Lions.
In that win, Columbia took advantage of a passive 2-3 zone defense and even Brown’s man-to-man knocking down 11 first half three’s on their way to an easy win.
Saturday, Brown turned up the heat defensively and knocked down ten treys against Columbia’s passive first half defense on their way to a 16-point win.
The Bears used a balanced scoring attack in the first half with 4 different players knocking down multiple three’s. points) aSean McGonagill (28 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists), Jean Harris (17 points), Stephen Albrecht (13 points) and Matt Sullivan (12 points, 5 rebounds) all connected from long range to put Brown up 43-26 at the break.
Brown also got solid play from their big men as Dockery Walker followed up his career night against Cornell with 12 more points against Columbia. Andrew McCarthy had a double-double (11 points, 12 rebounds) including a thunderous dunk that brought the crowd to its feet on Senior Night at the Pizz.
Harris is the lone senior on the Bears’ roster and he matched his season high with his 17 points.
The win lifted Brown out of a last place tie with Dartmouth who lost to Princeton.
The Bears (8-21, 2-10)close out the season at Penn Friday night and at Princeton on Saturday. The Quakers upset Harvard Saturday and are now a half game behind the Crimson for first place in the Ivy League and even in the loss column.
