Rams fall to Brown in double-overtime stumble

Photo courtesy of gorhody.com

After nine straight wins, Rhode Island’s perfect start to the season – the best in more than 40 years – finally met its end on Tuesday.

Despite leading Brown by as much as 12 after a quick start that kept Rhody in front throughout the entirety of the first half, a season-high slate of 21 URI turnovers, 15 Brown steals and 11 shots blocked allowed the Bears to take advantage of an uncharacteristically sloppy Rhody offense. Brown downed the Rams, 84-80, in double-overtime.

“They really rattled us,” URI Head Coach Archie Miller said postgame. “[We] couldn’t get anything around the rim, couldn’t make shots, but to our kids credit [they] fought really, really hard. We had our opportunities to win the game.”

Coming out of halftime, the hosts quickly erased a six-point hole when senior guard Kino Lilly Jr sank a jumper with just under 17 minutes left to knot the game at 42. From there, the two teams exchanged 10 lead changes as the game remained in the balance of a single-digit deficit down the stretch. 

Although Brown led for just 3:29 in the second half, the Bears made it count when it mattered. With 6:19 on the clock, senior guard Aaron Cooley sank a triple to give the hosts a 58-56 lead that they never relented. 

With URI down three late with under two minutes to play, senior guard Sebastian Thomas – who led the Rams with 22 points on the night – pulled up from distance to knot the game once again, 65-65. From there, neither team could find the basket in the last minute and a half as the game headed to overtime. 

After sharing equally poor shooting marks through the next five minutes, nothing separated the teams after the first overtime. The teams combined for a 4-11 mark from the field, bringing the score to 71-71 and forcing yet another overtime period.

The final stretch was where Rhody’s offensive inefficiencies finally came back to bite them. In a game where despite playing some of their sloppiest basketball, the Rams still managed to stay in it until the end, the Bears eventually pulled away for good when Lilly Jr. and junior forward Landon Lewis notched back-to-back layups to take a 75-71 lead with 3:24 to go.

Although senior guard David Green drove in for a layup to bring the game back within a point for URI and complete a double-double performance, the Rams couldn’t capitalize on a late chance to take the lead, and Lilly Jr iced the game a 6-6 mark from the Charity strip to give Brown the 84-80 win.

“We had opportunities to finish,” Miller said. “But [there was] offensive ineptness from a coaches point of view, [not] being able to get his players to play the right way. We gotta get that fixed.”

Rhode Island will look to rebound as they return home to face the defending NEC co-champions, Central Connecticut State University, on Sunday. Tip-off in the Rams’ non-conference home finale is set for 1 p.m. on ESPN+.