Dayton, URI Set to Square Off in A-10 Semifinals
Saturday, March 14, 2015
The URI Rams defeated the George Washington Colonials 71-58 to advance to the A-10 semifinals where they will face second seeded Dayton on Saturday, March 14 at 4 p.m. at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
The winner of this game will play on Sunday in the A-10 Championship and an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
The Dayton Flyers
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe Flyers are coming off a 75-71 quarterfinal win over St. Bonaventure and prior to that won three of their final four games of the season, including wins over #22 VCU and URI.
"Dayton is a high energy team that doesn't play a lot of guys. They use a short rotation of players who play a lot of minutes," said URI radio play by play man Steve MacDonald prior to the regular season showdown between the Rams and Flyers.
The Flyers are led by Jordan Sibert who averaged 16.6 points per game during the regular season and poured in 19 points against the Bonnies.
Sibert's teammate Dyshawn Pierre is the second leading scorer on the Flyers, averaging a near double-double with 13 points and eight rebounds. Pierre netted four points in the Flyers last game against the Bonnies.
URI vs. Dayton - March 3 - Dayton wins 75-59
In the only regular season meeting between the Rams and Flyers, Dayton won 75-59 on their home court.
URI led 20-18 with eight minutes left in the first half before the Flyers ripped off a 12-3 run to go up 30-23 and would lead 36-28 at the half.
URI would get as close as six, 49-43, with 11:30 left but would not get any closer the rest of the way .
E.C. Matthews led URI with 18 points while Jordan Sibert poured in a game high 21 points.
URI vs. Dayton
Defense will always be one of the major keys for the Rams, but in tournament play, a lot of times these games come down to free throw shooting and that's something that URI has had issues with at times this year.
"Free throws, some days they [URI] are very very good and some days it's been bad," said URI radio play by play man Steve MacDonald.
URI's free throw shooting has been inconsistent at best this season. The Rams missed 11 free throws in the regular season game against Dayton, 17 free throws in a key regular season game against Davidson which the Rams lost by one point and 15 free throws in the last round against George Washington, though they survived.
URI's free throw shooting will be a major factor in this game and throughout the rest of the tournament.
Title Game Trip on the Line
The Rams and Flyers tip off on Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn for the right to play in Sunday's A-10 Championship game.
The game can be seen on the CBS Sports Network.
Related Slideshow: URI Rams 2014-2015 Projected Starting Lineup
The URI Men's basketball team returns for the 2014-2015 college basketball season looking to make some noise in the A10 conference. Here is there projected starting lineup.
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