2008 Woodie Awards
Men's basketball holds off New Hampshire, 87-76
Evan Crawley
Issue date: 12/4/07 Section: Sports
- Page 1 of 2 next >
12/04/07 - After falling behind by 11 points early against the University of New Hampshire, the University of Rhode Island men's basketball team battled back to earn an 87-76 victory over the visiting Wildcats Saturday.
"I was very concerned about this game coming in because it's in between Providence and Northeastern," coach Jim Baron said. "I knew coming in they had won three games, and the team played Boston College very tough."
The Rams were caught napping in the early going by the hot shooting Wildcats, who knocked down four 3-pointers in the first five minutes of the game.
"That's kind of like a pattern we've been creating," junior Kahiem Seawright said. "The last couple games, even if you watch us the whole season, we've just been starting off real slow."
The Rams followed their early game funk with, in all likelihood, the best-sustained stretch Rhody has put together all season.
Sophomore Keith Cothran spurned with a midrange jumper that would turn into a 42-10 run for the Rams, spanning from the 14:51 mark until the end of the first half.
This included two separate runs of 15-0 and 17-0 highlighted by a combined eight 3-point bombs from the Cameroon connection of seniors Parfait Bitee and Joe Mbang, and junior Jimmy Baron.
"They're a spurt team," Herrion said. "I think in the Northeastern game it's about even with 11 or 12 to go and all of a sudden they win by 20, and that's how they play and they're very capable of doing that."
Mbang tied a career high in points with 22, while Bitee had a solid day distributing the basketball with eight assists and 14 points. Baron scored 12 of his 14 points in the first half, only attempting three shots in the second.
Rhody entered halftime with a lead of 49-28 and appeared well on its way to an easy victory over the Wildcats.
"Once we started off really slow, they hit a couple shots, they got their confidence up and before we knew it we were down however many points," Seawright said. "We've been in that position before and we just kept fighting and the lead flipped."
"I was very concerned about this game coming in because it's in between Providence and Northeastern," coach Jim Baron said. "I knew coming in they had won three games, and the team played Boston College very tough."
The Rams were caught napping in the early going by the hot shooting Wildcats, who knocked down four 3-pointers in the first five minutes of the game.
"That's kind of like a pattern we've been creating," junior Kahiem Seawright said. "The last couple games, even if you watch us the whole season, we've just been starting off real slow."
The Rams followed their early game funk with, in all likelihood, the best-sustained stretch Rhody has put together all season.
Sophomore Keith Cothran spurned with a midrange jumper that would turn into a 42-10 run for the Rams, spanning from the 14:51 mark until the end of the first half.
This included two separate runs of 15-0 and 17-0 highlighted by a combined eight 3-point bombs from the Cameroon connection of seniors Parfait Bitee and Joe Mbang, and junior Jimmy Baron.
"They're a spurt team," Herrion said. "I think in the Northeastern game it's about even with 11 or 12 to go and all of a sudden they win by 20, and that's how they play and they're very capable of doing that."
Mbang tied a career high in points with 22, while Bitee had a solid day distributing the basketball with eight assists and 14 points. Baron scored 12 of his 14 points in the first half, only attempting three shots in the second.
Rhody entered halftime with a lead of 49-28 and appeared well on its way to an easy victory over the Wildcats.
"Once we started off really slow, they hit a couple shots, they got their confidence up and before we knew it we were down however many points," Seawright said. "We've been in that position before and we just kept fighting and the lead flipped."