Late Thomas bucket lifts Rams over Patriots in conference home opener

Photo courtesy of Shane Donaldson

Up against the fourth-best defense in the country, Rhode Island men’s basketball went more than 10 minutes in the first half without scoring in their Atlantic 10 home opener vs. George Mason on Saturday. It was a game that seemed over almost as soon as it started. 

Enter Sebastian Thomas… Again. 

We’ve seen this before. In similar fashion to his late-game heroics vs. Providence and Temple, the senior guard once again stole the spotlight in the dying embers, this time with less than a second on the clock, to pull the Rams ahead of the Patriots with a fadeaway jumper from the baseline. Almost like clockwork, the impossible once again became possible. A packed Ryan Center exploded as the Rams walked off with a 62-59 win. 

“When the game was on the line…I knew we were gonna get the last shot,” Thomas said. “[I] definitely wanted the ball. I think my teammates trust me with the ball in my hands with the last shot. Coaches trust me, and [my mentality] was really just, ‘get a bucket,’ honestly.”

Although the Rams managed to claw their way back from a 12-point deficit, the win masked what was otherwise an ugly reality for Rhode Island in front of its home fans. Through 20 minutes, the Patriots held the Rams to just 28% shooting – 9-32 from the floor – while Rhode Island turned the ball over seven times. Throughout the entire game, URI shot just 33%.

“We really didn't have any business winning that game for a long period of the first half,” Miller said. “They could have gotten away from us…in the first half, we had a hangover effect still from the Tuesday afternoon experience at Duquesne. It looked the same. It felt the same.”

That stretch included an 0-13 drought that spanned more than 10 minutes, and no matter the rotation, Archie Miller’s men seemed to have no answers for an airtight Patriots defense in the first half. On the other end of the floor, the Patriots converted at a 50% clip to take a 34-25 lead into the break. 

“We panicked,” Thomas said. “When things don't go our way, we kind of start to do isolation, just one on one basketball. And that leads to bad shots, turnovers.”

Down by 11 points, a Cam Estevez three at the buzzer gave Rhode Island life at the tail end of a dismal first half, and sparked a slow climb back to level terms. Out of the interval, it took the Rams until the 3:53 mark to eventually knot the game at 54 when Thomas went coast to coast off of a Javonte Brown block with a layup to tie the game. Brown finished his afternoon with career-highs in blocks (6) and rebounds (13).

On the next possession, Thomas was in action again, barreling through traffic and sinking a contested floater to give Rhody its first lead since the opening five minutes. 

The game remained in a one-possession balance until the buzzer. After Mason tied the game once again, senior guard Quentin Dibounje – who was making his first appearance since Nov. 24 and just his fourth as a Ram – sank the biggest shot of his Rhode Island career from just inside the perimeter under pressure to put the Rams ahead by three with just 22 seconds left. 

However, the drama didn’t end there. Straight down the other way, junior guard Brayden O’Connor completed a sneaky drive with a successful and-one play to keep the visitors in it with just under 12 seconds to go. 

From there, Thomas took control of the ball for the last play of the game, and the rest is history. He finished with 23 points, marking his fourth straight game eclipsing 20, and helped the Rams stay perfect in nine games at home this season.

“When you play against really good teams, it's not going to be pretty sometimes,” Miller said. “We had five four-minute games that we wanted to really just concentrate on winning [in the second half]…We won all five, and we had a great fight about us. And then it just came down at the end of the day, our home court, guys making some big plays when we needed to.”

With the win, Rhode Island avoided an 0-2 start to conference play, and stayed undefeated in nine games at home. The Rams will look to make it a winning conference record when it welcomes Geroge Washington to the Ryan Center on Wednesday for a 7 p.m. tip-off on ESPN+ The Revolutionaries are coming off a 20-point win vs. A-10 heavyweights Dayton, and will prove as tough a test as URI will get early in the conference slate.