Sebastian Thomas floats into the lane for a layup in the first half in Tuesday’s win against Sacred Heart. PHOTO CREDIT: Greg Clark
After a tough loss against arch nemesis Providence on Saturday, the University of Rhode Island Men’s Basketball team got back on the winning track with a 72-62 victory over Sacred Heart University on Tuesday.
It was a hard-fought battle from the jump, with the Pioneers taking an early 18-11 advantage thanks to three made 3-pointers from Tyler Thomas. He had 15 of his game-high 30 points in the first half, giving Sacred Heart a 31-29 lead going into the half.
“It was a lackluster first half to say the least, particularly on the defensive end,” Rhode Island Men’s Basketball Coach David Cox said. “I haven’t seen that from this group yet. We need to fix some things going forward.”
The second half was a completely different story as the Rams came out firing from the 3-point line and turned up the intensity on the defensive end.
The 3-point barrage helped to build a slight Rhody advantage, but the Pioneers continued to battle, staying within striking distance thanks to timely baskets from Thomas and guard Joey Reilly. With 14:05 remaining in the game, the Rams found themselves up 47-41.
Rhode Island wouldn’t relinquish the lead for the rest of the night. Key baskets from sophomore center Makhel Mitchell and a seven-minute span in which Thomas did not score due to a strong defensive effort from junior forward Malik Martin helped to strengthen the Rams’ lead. Martin was happy he could help the team defensively, but felt the collective effort needed to be stronger.
“I thought I did a good job sticking to [Thomas],” Martin said. “He hit a lot of threes so I couldn’t really leave him. But overall, we got to do a better job collectively.”
That defense was able to allow Rhody to grow their lead and Mitchell and Ishmael El-Amin took advantage, scoring 21 combined points in the second half to push the Rams’ lead to double digits.
Ishmael Leggett also added in a couple of baskets in the last few minutes and the Rams walked away victorious despite the first half scare.
Rhody showed off its balanced scoring once again, with five different Rams reaching double-digit scoring. Makhel Mitchell was the leading scorer on the night, notching 14 points with 10 of them coming in the second half to go along with three blocks. Behind him was Leggett, who finished with 12 to go along with five rebounds, four assists and three steals, as well as Ishmael El-Amin and Makhi Mitchell who finished with 11 each. Redshirt junior forward Antwan Walker rounded it out for the Rams with 10 points and 8 rebounds and Martin added seven points, four rebounds and stellar on-ball defense.
Overall, Cox was much happier with the effort put forth in the second half after a frustrating first stanza both offensively and defensively.
“I thought we did a much better job in the second half, particularly on the defensive end,” Cox said. “We also did a better job moving the ball and getting the ball inside. We were able to get better looks.”
The Rams will look to build on that second half effort when they head to Wisconsin to take on University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Monday, with tip-off set for 8 p.m. The game can be seen ESPN+.