After a double-digit comeback effort in the final minutes of a back and forth game, the University of Rhode Island men’s basketball team came up just short in a 81-79 loss to the University of Massachusetts on Sunday.
“I thought we played to win today,” URI Head Coach Archie Miller said postgame. “I give our guys credit for the ability to not cave in.”
The Rams traveled to Amherst, Massachusetts riding the momentum of their 88-65 win on the road against George Washington University earlier in the week. This was a crucial game in the Atlantic 10 Conference standings, as both Rhode Island and Massachusetts entered at 5-5 in conference play. These two teams met at the Ryan Center back on Jan. 13, when the Rams defeated the Minutemen 89-77.
The big story in the first meeting between these teams was how well the Rams shot the ball from beyond the perimeter, making a season high 14 threes on 61% shooting. This continued to be the theme early with Rhode Island starting the game making three straight triples, while UMass started the game 1-8 beyond the arc. This led to the Rams being able to extend their lead to as much as nine with 7:30 left in the half.
UMass made a late charge in the half aided by threes on back-to-back possessions by first-year guard Jaylen Curry, who had a game-leading 10 first half points. This was part of a 7-0 run for the Minutemen that cut the lead down to 33-31.
At the half, Rhode Island led 35-32. They controlled the pace of the game, leading for the final 17 minutes of the half. Third-year forward David Green led the Rams with nine points in the first half, and fourth-year guard Jaden House also had seven.
The first few minutes of the second half went about as poorly as Rhode Island could’ve envisioned. UMass took their first lead since the game was 6-5 three minutes in after second-year guard Keon Thompson made a layup, the first of his eventual 14 second half points. To make matters worse for the Rams, Green suffered a knee injury and had to miss the remainder of the game, ending with 11 points.
It was a completely different story from three point range for the Minutemen in the second half. After shooting 4-16 in the opening 20 minutes, they began the second half making six of their first nine shots from beyond the arc. They opened their lead up to 60-53 with the improved shooting.
“That [three point shooting] is not their speciality,” Miller said. “But the ability for us to stop the three in the second half was really an attention to detail type of thing.”
UMass went on a 13-1 run to extend their lead all the way to 68-54 with just over five minutes left in the game and looked in control. The Rams, though, were not going to make it easy on them as they started to wake up on the offensive end down the stretch.
House started to heat up for Rhode Island, scoring 11 points in the span of 1:30. This was part of five straight made field goal attempts for URI on their way to an 11-0 run, cutting their deficit down to just 74-72 with two minutes left. 10 of the 11 points in the run were scored by either House or fourth-year guard Luis Kortright.
UMass went on a quick 6-0 run to respond, helped largely by a three pointer from third-year guard Rahsool Diggins. Diggins led the Minutemen in scoring with 18 points on 6-11 shooting from long range.
“I thought Diggins was terrific today,” Miller said. “He banged six threes and we had no ability level to be there on the shot.”
Trailing 80-72 with just 40 seconds left on the clock, the lead appeared insurmountable once again for Rhode Island. Kortright, however, had different ideas, with a three-play sequence of making a free throw, a steal and a three pointer to cut it to 80-76 with 25 seconds left. After UMass made just one of their four free throw attempts on the other end, Kortright knocked down another three to make it 81-79 with six seconds left on the clock.
The struggles from the free throw line continued for the Minutemen as Curry missed both with four seconds left, giving Rhode Island a chance to win the game. Kortright was able to scurry down the court and get a look from three point range at the buzzer, but it bounced off the back iron and UMass was able to hold on with a 81-79 win. Despite the loss, Miller commended the effort from the team in the final minutes.
“Our guys have been in a couple situations this year where the game starts to go not our way on the road and we don’t finish,” Miller said. “But I thought we rallied. I thought we made some good plays and gave ourselves a chance to finish.”
House led the Rams in scoring with 22 points. Kortright added 15 points, with 13 of those points coming in the final half.
Rhode Island dropped to 11-13 and 5-6 in conference play following this loss and will now get a full bye week off to regroup.
“We’re in the back nine games, it’s the dog days of college basketball,” Miller said. “We finally catch a bye week here at a much needed time to get our bodies and our minds right before we get back on the floor.”
Next up, Rhode Island will return home to the Ryan Center on Sunday to take on Loyola University Chicago. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network at 12 p.m..