Jalen Carey shoots over Hunter Dean in the first half of Saturday’s loss against George Washington. PHOTO CREDIT: Greg Clark.
For the first two months of the season, the University of Rhode Island men’s basketball team has been able to protect their home court and it looked like they were going to continue that Saturday afternoon.
After leading by as many as 15 points in the first half, the Rams saw their lead evaporate in the second half before falling to George Washington University 63-61.
With the game tied at 60 with less than a minute to play, GW’s James Bishop knocked down the go-ahead bucket on the left elbow to give the Colonials the lead with 55 seconds remaining. The Rams had three opportunities to tie and win the game. The first came with 44 seconds remaining when Jeremy Sheppard made 1-of-2 free throws to cut the deficit to 62-61. The second came when Sheppard slipped on the right wing and turned the ball over with 5 seconds remaining and the final opportunity came when a three-point attempt from Ishmael El-Amin bounced off the rim as time expired.
“Too many self-inflicted wounds on our part, ” Rhode Island Men’s Basketball coach David Cox said after the game. “Whether it was the free throw shooting, which reared its ugly head for a second game in a row, or our inability to make an open three, too many mistakes down the stretch.”
Prior to Saturday’s game, the team shot 69 percent from the line, but for the second game in a row, the Rams struggled from the charity stripe, shooting 15-for-31.
“Sometimes you get the yips at the line,” Cox said about his team’s recent struggles with shooting free throws. “Sometimes it becomes contagious when you see other people struggle and I think that’s what’s happening with the guys, but we have to be mentally stronger than that. You miss 16 free throws in a 2-point game, that is the difference.”
Coming into the game as 15-point favorites, the Rams looked like the better team early, holding the Colonials to 1-for-10 shooting and forcing seven turnovers while taking an early 15-3 lead with 11:45 remaining in the first half. The lead stretched to 20-5 before the Colonials rallied in the final ten minutes of the first half to cut the deficit to 33-25 at the half.
“We played outstanding defense the first eight minutes of the game,” Cox said. “Sometimes that’s not necessarily sustainable, holding that gap like that. As they started to creep back in, we felt it then. I thought we were still in a place. Just didn’t capitalize.”
In the second half, GW picked up where they left off, slowly chipping at the Rams’ lead until it was 47-45 with 11:14 left in the game. A free throw from Colonial guard Brayon Freeman and a layup off a turnover from Bishop on GW’s next two possessions gave them their first lead of the afternoon at the 10:16 mark.
From there, seven lead changes and six ties kept the two teams within two points of each other. El-Amin tied the game at 59 with a jumper on the left elbow with 3:57 remaining, but after that, URI went cold, going without a made field goal and going 2-for-8 from the line during that stretch.
“As a team, we could’ve been better on both sides of the ball,” Ishmael Leggett said. “Like coach said, mental lapses down the stretch and inability to make free throws, it all comes down to the next play. Everyone has to get in the gym with a whole new mindset of ‘this won’t happen again.’”
Sheppard led the scoring for Rhody with 12 points while Leggett and Mahkel Mitchell each added 11 points. GW were led by Bishop who scored all of his 15 points in the second half and Hunter Dean who recorded a 15-point, 11-rebound double-double.
The Rams look to bounce back Tuesday night when they host the University of Richmond. Tip off is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and the game can be seen on CBS Sports Network.
“We’ll be ready for our next game,” Cox said. “I believe in this group and I love this group of guys. We had trouble handling prosperity the way we were up early. Our guys took their foot off the gas, GW continued to push and that’s a mature thing. You’ve got to handle leads better than that and we didn’t do that today.”