Women's basketball drops third straight; loses tight game to Providence

Photo courtesy of GoRhody.com

Despite the holiday season being upon us, the Rhode Island Rams women’s basketball team are far from a merry state after dropping their third straight game, falling to Providence  48-45 at home on Wednesday night.

In a game that remained true to the tide of the season so far, the Rams struggled to execute offensively in the fourth quarter, scoring just five points in the final six minutes while going 2-10 from the field in the final ten minutes of play.

“The second half, which has been our nemesis all year, [has been about] trying to find the players who can make the plays to end the games and it has been really really difficult,” URI Head Coach Tammi Reiss said. “Every game we have played thus far, and they have been pretty close, I think other than St. John’s, second half and fourth quarter execution is really killing us.”

The Rams have trailed in the fourth quarter in eight of their first 10 games, with their only positive point differentials in the final 10 minutes coming against Stonehill on Nov. 4, and UMass Lowell on Nov. 20. One of the reasons for Rhody’s late falters is due to a lack of scoring identity.

Rhode Island currently only has one player averaging over 10 points per game, Senior center Honey Kaur. The last time Rhody had just one player averaging double-digit points was 2016-17, when Charise Wilson (‘18) scored 19.7 points per game, while averaging 17.5 through her first 10 games.

The difference between 2016 and 2024 though, is that this season Kaur is averaging just 11.1 through the first 10-game stretch, leaving a state of inconsistency in late game moments.

That complex was apparent in the final moments of the loss on Wednesday, when the Rams were down five points to the Friars with six seconds left in the game. The ball was inbounded, and Kaur, after looking around for a pass, drove into the paint for a buzzer beater layup, trimming the deficit to just three points.

“It was supposed to be a three-point shot,” Reiss said. “The screen wasn’t set quick enough again and she couldn’t make the pass, she said she couldn’t see her… but again, with a young team, you can’t just draw something up and think they are going to be able to [do it].”

The start to the season for Rhode Island has been a stark comparison to last year, with the Atlantic 10 runner up for 2023-24 currently sitting 11th in the 2024-25 standings. The 4-6 start is the worst start to a season through 10 games since 2017-18, a year when Rhode Island finished 3-27. 

“It’s just a stretch for us,” Reiss said. “And again, it’s the process, it’s being patient with them, but we have a standard here, and they’re not used to losing. So it’s really shocking for them and they’re having problems doing what we normally do.”

Despite the woes around Kingston regarding the finale of the mid-week clash, all was not poor from Rhode Island, who held the lead going into halftime due to a clinical second quarter. The Rams led the Friars 12-6 in the final 10 minutes before halftime, a quarter where they have stepped up this year. In juxtapositional fashion to their fourth quarter struggles, the Rams have trailed in the second quarter just once through the first 10 games, falling behind Albany by five points on Nov. 8.

The Rams will hope to utilize their second-quarter skillset as opposed to their fourth-quarter showing on Saturday when they take on the undefeated Harvard Crimson at 2 p.m. The Rams had their season end in Cambridge two seasons ago in the WNIT, and will hope to take down Harvard on the road for the first time since 1995. The game can be streamed on ESPN+ with a radio broadcast available on the Varsity Network.