Rams Lose Heartbreaker To Seton Hall
Monday, November 19, 2012
Now this one hurt.
It hasn't been the easiest start to the Dan Hurley era at URI. The offensively-challenged Rams were (0-3) heading into play Sunday against the Seton Hall Pirates at the Mohegan Sun Arena where it appeared that they were about to win for the first time. It will have to wait.
Rhody, which led by as many as 13 points, managed to score just 5 points in the final 10:38 of the second half allowing Seton Hall to pick up the come-from-behind win 60-55.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTRam fans were excited early on as Rhody came out of the gates fast building a 13-point lead on back-to-back three pointers by Mike Powell (19 points) making it 27-14. The Rams would remain steady until halftime leading 32-23 at the break.
A 4-point play by Powell (5-6 from three point range) followed by another Powell lay-up put Rhode Island up 50-41 with 10:38 to play. That's when the Rams went cold.
From that point on, URI went (1-8) from the field and turned the ball over six times down the stretch.
Meanwhile, Seton Hall finished with a 19-5 run to close out the game to improve their record to (3-1) while the Rams fell to (0-4).
For the game, URI's shooting numbers weren't bad. The Rams shot 44% (21-48) from the field, 40% (8-20) from three and 71% (5-7) from the free throw line. But their cold shooting down the stretch led to their demise.
The descrepancy in free throws also didn't help Rhode Island. Seton Hall went 20-26 (77%) from the stripe led by center Gene Teague (21 points, 9 rebounds).
Andre Malone was the only other Ram in double figures with 12 points and freshman Jordan Hare got his first career start finishing with 4 points and 4 rebounds in 15 minutes of work. Hare did commit 4 fouls.
Xavier Munford went just 3-15 (20%) from the field and finished with 7 points.
URI also played without Nikola Malesevic who was held out for disciplinary reasons which apparently occurred off the court.
The Rams are off until Friday when they host the Loyola (Md) Greyhounds at the Ryan Center. Loyola is off to a (4-1) start to the season playing out of the MAAC.
