Through a two-game road trip, the University of Rhode Island men’s basketball team dropped a pair of games to La Salle University, 84-61, and Virginia Commonwealth University, 88-67, this past week.
Firstly, the squad battled with the La Salle Explorers in Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon. The Rams went down early and were never able to come back up for air, trailing in the contest for all but just under two minutes to La Salle in a fairly one-sided affair.
Rhode Island’s defensive play served as their greatest weakness in the game, allowing the Explorers to shoot 50.8% from the field and 46.2% from beyond the arc.
“It’s a total lack of responsibility from myself and it trickles down to our players,” URI Head Coach Archie Miller said. “[We’re] embarrassed about our performance, specifically our effort level, our attention to detail [and] our approach wasn’t there.”
The lack of execution left two of La Salle’s best scorers this season to unload on the Rams. Fourth-year guard Khalil Brantley tallied 22 points and second-year forward Rokas Jocius placed 20 points on the board as well.
To compound these factors, Rhode Island’s top two scorers, third-year guard Jaden House and third-year forward David Green, were held to just seven and eight points respectively, with neither scoring in the first half.
“We weren’t ready to play,” Miller said. “There wasn’t a guy on our team that was ready to play. It started at the jump ball with the first possession.”
One brighter spot in the game for the Rams was third-year guard Brandon Weston, who this year has started to break out of his shell, starting the last six games for the Rams. Weston led Rhode Island with 12 points, and was only joined by third-year guard Zek Montgomery in double-digit scoring, who had 11.
After the first loss, Rhode Island tried to walk out of the week at .500 when they continued their road trip against VCU on Wednesday night. However, they fell in that contest as well.
The 21-point defeat to the fellow Rams marked the fourth defeat of 20 or more points this season, and provided a major setback for Rhody as the final weeks of the season trudge on.
Rhode Island started slow in this contest as well, going down 17-3 just 7:27 into the first half. VCU kept their foot on the gas for the rest of the first segment in the contest and traveled to the locker room with a 21-point halftime lead.
“We talked a lot about the first eight minutes of the game and just getting off to a good start offensively in terms of taking care of [the ball],” Miller said. “I think when we get into a place like this you need to be able to run a good offense. Even if you aren’t scoring you can’t turn it over and give them good opportunities.”
The second half of the battle was a better effort for Rhody as they split the second half even with VCU, scoring 46 points apiece.
When it was all said and done though, tying just sometimes isn’t enough and the poor start resulted in the Rams dropping their fifth straight game and their second straight 20-point loss.
Green made a surprise appearance off the bench and led the Rams in scoring with 16 points. However, the defensive play once again led Rhody down, as VCU was able to shoot 48.4% from the field while also knocking down 10 three-pointers.
Turnovers also plagued the Rams as their 15 giveaways converted to 15 points off of turnovers for VCU.
Hoping for a better outcome, Rhode Island will return home to host Saint Louis University at the Ryan Center on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.. The game can be streamed on CBS Sports Network.