The Rams advanced to the second round of the A-10 Tournament after knocking off Duquesne Wednesday afternoon. PHOTO CREDIT: Greg Clark
The University of Rhode Island Men’s Basketball team has a long road ahead if they want to change the course of their season, but they took the first step Wednesday afternoon with a narrow 79-77 win over Duquesne University.
A 70-60 loss to Saint Joseph’s on Saturday pushed the Rams down to the 11th seed and into the tournament’s first round to face the Dukes. The last times these two teams met, the Rams had their way with Duquesne, but this game was tight from the very beginning.
Duquesne shot out to an 11-6 lead behind five points and an assist from freshman guard Amir “Primo” Spears. The Rams fought back with buckets from senior guard Jeremy Sheppard and junior forward Antwan Walker, tying the game for the Rams on a number of occasions.
The Duquesne offense kept the pressure on the Rams in the latter part of the first half, with Spears and forward Kevin Easley hitting shots to extend their advantage to 34-27 with four minutes remaining in the half. Three-point jumpers from guards Ishmael El-Amin and Ishmael Leggett as well as a timely Walker layup kept Rhody within striking distance, as the two teams went into the break at 41-37 in favor of the Dukes.
The Rams established the tempo in the second half with great defense and two buckets each from juniors Malik Martin and Walker to give Rhode Island a 49-46 lead just four minutes into the second stanza.
Rhody maintained a steady four to six-point advantage until the 11-minute mark of the second half, when the Dukes used a 7-2 run of their own behind two buckets from Easley and an “and-one” basket from guard Jackie Johnson III. This stretch cut the Ram lead to 57-56 with just under nine minutes to play in the contest.
Key baskets from Sheppard and sophomore big man Makhi Mitchell, who scored all ten of his points in the second half, helped fend off the constant pressure from the Dukes. With two minutes left in the game, the Rams held onto a 72-65 lead.
When it looked like things might have gone the Rams’ way, however, Duquesne put in one more huge scoring effort with buckets by Spears and Easley bringing the game back to 78-77. With five seconds left, Sheppard was sent to the line, where he made 1-of-2 free throws to give the Rams a 79-77 lead. With one final opportunity to win the game, the Dukes went for a half-court heave at the buzzer, but it fell short, giving the Rams the victory.
While Spears and Easley were the top performers for the Dukes, with 30 and 20 points respectively, the Rams spread out the scoring and got big contributions from a number of different players. Sheppard finished the day with 15 points and six assists, while Walker had one of his best games of the season, scoring 17 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Leggett also chipped in 12 of his own points and the bench gave the Rams 22 points.
Afterward, Walker was asked about his stellar performance back in his hometown, but was just happy about his team’s performance.
“I was just happy that we all played hard and got the win,” Walker said. “That’s all that matters to me. Now it’s time to think about our next game.”
Head Coach David Cox was impressed with the performance from Spears, but thought his Rams showed resiliency and guts.
“Spears is one heck of a player and he is really tough to guard,” Cox said. “But we talked a lot philosophically about what we wanted to do in this tournament and I thought we did a good job for the most part today. Now it’s on to Richmond.”
As Cox mentioned, the Rams will now take on the Richmond Spiders in the Second Round of the tournament on Thursday with tip off set for 8:30 p.m. The game can be viewed on the USA Network.