2008 Woodie Awards
Men's basketball defeats Stonehill College 107-69 in exhibition play
Evan Crawley
Issue date: 11/2/07 Section: Sports
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"The guys have been waiting for this, and we're really hoping that the student body can come out and support us," Rams head coach Jim Baron said. "We're scoring a lot of points, we're making it real exciting, and we really want to get this place rocking and rolling."
Even with the score well out of reach in the Rams 107-69 win over Stonehill College last night, fans stood and cheered as if it was a close game in March, not an exhibition game.
"I think that there's a buzz just because of where we left off last year," senior Will Daniels said. "We have unfinished business."
Stonehill played Rhody tough for a little while during the first half, but the Rams dominated the Skyhawks for much of the game.
"You got to give a lot of credit to Stonehill, they came in and gave us a challenge in the beginning," Daniels said.
Rhody jumped out to an early double-digit lead behind the hot shooting of Daniels and junior Jimmy Baron. However, the Rams quickly cooled off and the Skyhawks cut the deficit to 23-18 with 10:13 to go.
After a sluggish first half in which the Rams played Where's Waldo defense, where it was hard to find a solid defensive possession in the many opportunities they had and allowed the opposition to shoot 64 percent from the field, Rhody still managed to hold a 46-40 advantage at halftime.
"It was poor, we've got to do a better job," Baron said. "It's no question we have to get better, we're going to face a lot of good teams that are going to do what they did and take it off the dribble and make shots."
Daniels shared some of the same sentiments as his coach, and he said he understands the importance of the team playing strong defense.
"Defense is one of the things Coach Baron stressed a lot, so obviously if you want to stay on the floor you have to get better in that area," Daniels said.
The Skyhawks actually cut the deficit to just five with 14:32 to go in the second half, and then the Rams gave the 3,112 fans in attendance a glimpse at what so many are expecting of the team this season.
"The crowd always plays a big part in our wins, and we just want to thank the crowd and we want to encourage more people to come out and more fans to support us," Daniels said.
Rhody outscored Stonehill 53-20 from that point on, highlighted by a three-point barrage from Baron, Daniels, and seniors Parfait Bitee and Joe Mbang.
Mbang sat the entire first half after violating an undisclosed team rule, but started the second half and finished strong with eight points and four rebounds.
"I think we had a little bit of a lack of energy at the start of the game, but we picked it up in the second half," Bitee said. Also coming on strong in the second frame was the high flying sophomore Lamonte Ulmer, who finished with 12 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals after a rough first half. Daniels, Baron and Bitee led the way in the second half for Rhody, who shot 77.1 percent in the half. Daniels went for 31 points and nine rebounds, Baron dropped 21 points and Bitee played the roll of court general with 11 assists and just one turnover to go with his 14 points.
"Last summer I got really comfortable, coach told me that I was going to have to play the point, so I would have to work on sharing the ball," Bitee said.
Bitee also benefited from playing at the FIBA Africans Olympic Qualifying Tournament for the Cameroon National Team where they lost to Angola in the finals.
"That was great, I would do it again in a heart beat," Bitee said. "The final game we played was like an NCAA Tournament game, it was great."
Newcomers junior Jason Francis and freshman Will Martell made a major splash in their debut for the Rams front court, coming on strong in the second half.
"I thought the young guys were a little nervous," Daniels said. "Obviously we scrimmage and play in practice, but the lights were on tonight."
Francis, a monster of a man standing a solid 6'9, 280 pounds, muscled his way to eight points on 4-of-4 shooting with a thunderous dunk and a couple of baby hooks in the lane.
The wiry 6'11 Martell, with a Stretch Armstrong-like physique, never shied away from contact with a pair of blocks, while showing his range on the offensive end knocking down a 3-pointer and a 17-foot jumper on his way to eight points.
The Rams have one more exhibition game when they host Concordia University at 7 p.m. Monday. Their first real game is Nov. 9 with a non-conference match up with Florida Atlantic University.