Women's basketball blow out St. Louis in biggest win of season to open A-10 play

Photo courtesy of Sal Annino

A historic day for senior guard Sophie Phillips and a career-high double-double from senior center Harsimran “Honey” Kaur led women’s basketball to their largest offensive output of the season on Sunday, defeating St. Louis 83-61 to open Atlantic 10 play at the Ryan Center.

“We haven't put it all together offensively, and today we did.” URI Head Coach Tammi Reiss said. “That was our best offensive output as a team. Not just shooting the ball, but getting the ball where it needed to go. Every play we got coming out of timeouts, we made the pass and we got the shot. We've struggled with that in the non-conference.”

For the first time all year, URI tallied more than 20 points in the first three quarters, shot a season-high 53% from the field and amassed a season-best 83 points, taking an early lead 22 seconds into the game and never looking back from there.

Phillips wasted no time etching her name in program history on Sunday’s matchup, sinking a pair of triples in the first two minutes to give the Rams an early cushion. The quick start brought Phillips’ career total to 197 three-pointers, tying the all-time program record in the process. 

It took the Billikens more than five minutes to find its first points from the field, and a 10-16 mark from the floor put Rhody ahead 24-15 after the first quarter. Kaur led the Rams with 14 points in the first quarter alone, en route to a career-high 27-point performance to lead the team. The senior grabbed 10 rebounds to complete her third double-double of the season.

Phillips went on to take sole possession of the all-time record with her third three of the day to open up the second quarter, finishing her afternoon with 17 points and five total three-pointers, becoming the only Ram ever to eclipse the 200-career mark. Phillips and Kaur both reached double-figures inside the opening 15 minutes to give the Rams a 45-24 halftime lead, matching their highest-scoring half of the season.

“I definitely couldn't have done it [broken the record] without my teammates and my coaches believing in me, especially when I didn't have such a strong start at the beginning of the year,” Phillips said. ”But they all believed in me and told me to keep shooting. That's what I do, so I just had to find it, really.” 

Out of the half, a 10-2 run kept things going for the Rams as the Billikens once again struggled to get things going early. By the end of the third quarter, the Rams continued to roll, limiting the Billikens to just three points in the final four minutes and extending their lead to 32 points.

Sophomore guard Sophie Vital was also active on offense, dishing a career-high 14 assist – the third-highest single-game tally in program history. Junior guard Ines Debroise and junior forward Hawa Komara rounded out the double-figure scoring for Rhode Island, scoring 10 apiece.

Although the Billikens began to wake up in the final 10 minutes, using a late 12-0 run to  outscore the Rams 27-15, it wasn’t enough to climb the hill as the Rams saw out the 83-63 win, moving to 4-3 at the Ryan Center and a perfect 1-0 start to conference play. 

After a tough skid through the non-conference slate, the two-game winning streak represented something that Reiss said had been building in practice all season.

“When you lose five in a row, it's difficult,” Reiss said. “The one thing they do is they show up every day and they give you what they got, and they compete and they believe, and that's all you can ask. And if you keep doing that, eventually things will fall into place. And so far, our last two weeks and two games, we've been on the upswing.”

Up next, the Rams will look to keep their momentum going as they hit the road for an afternoon meeting with St. Bonaventure on Thursday. The matchup will tip-off at 1 p.m. on ESPN+.