Rams Roll UMass Lowell 72-56, Start Season 2-0
Monday, November 17, 2014
GoLocalProv Sports Team
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Photo courtesy of gorhody.com
The University of Rhode Island Rams men's basketball team (2-0) defeated the UMass Lowell River Hawks (0-2) 72-56 on Sunday afternoon in front of just over 4,000 fans at The Ryan Center.
Sophomore forward, Hassan Martin, led Rhode Island with 18 points and eight rebounds, while freshman Jared Terrell added 12 points for the Rams in the win.
The Rams came into this game with a major size advantage which they executed to perfection, outscoring UMass Lowell 52-26 in the paint, which greatly made up for the 18 turnovers the Rams committed in the contest.
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For the River Hawks, Jahad Thomas led the way with 17 points while Lance Crawford added 16 points off the bench. The River Hawks dominated the battle of the benches, outscoring the Rams 35-21 however, it was not enough.
The Rams now have a week off before hosting the first big challenge of the season, Nebraska, next Saturday, November 22nd, at 2 p.m.
Click here to purchase tickets.
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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Guard- E.C. Matthews
Sophomore E.C. Matthews will lead the Rams back court and scoring this season after having a great freshman year. The 6'5" Matthews averaged 15.3 points and 4.4 rebounds per game for the Rams last season and since January of 2014, he has had seven games where he has scored at least 20 points.
Matthews was named to the Bob Cousy Award watch list earlier in the preseason, signifying that he is already one of the best guards in the country.
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Guard- Jared Terrell
One of the players to watch for off the bench is 6'3" freshman Jared Terrell who is ranked as one of of the top prospects in America. In high school, at Brewster Academy, Terrell averaged 14.5 points and five rebounds per game. Terell chose URI over several other high level D-I schools, including the rival Providence Friars.
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Guard- Biggie Minnis
Biggie Minnis, a 6'3" junior, will be the third guard in the rotation for the Rams this season. Minnis appeared in 21 games last season for the Rams and started in 11 games. He missed eight games due to injury.
In the games he played, Minnis averaged just under five points per game and shot over 50% from the floor. If he can stay healthy, the Rams will be looking forward to more of that.
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Forward- Gilvydas Biruta
6'8" Senior Gilvydas Biruta is coming off a year where he was one of the team captains and averaged just over 10 points per game and shot 67% from the floor. Biruta was also a force on the boards pulling down an average of seven rebounds per game for Rhode Island.
URI will look for him to take the next step this year as he helps lead the Rams through the season.
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Forward- Hassan Martin
Sophomore Forward Hassan Martin was a first year presence for the Rams last season. The Staten Island bred big man averaged over 6 points and 5 rebounds per game in his freshman season, while also adding 2.5 blocks per game. Along with Biruta, Martin anchor a Rams defense that looks very promising.
The Rams could be in very good shape this season if Martin is able to take big steps towards improving his offensive game.
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6th man- T.J. Buchanan
Senior guard T.J. Buchanan was the first man off the bench for the Rams last season. In that role, the 6'4" Buchanan averaged just under six points per game and had a field goal percentage of 65 for the season. Buchanan will look to add to those numbers in the same role this season.
Buchanan will also bring some much needed veteran leadership off the bench.
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