The Good 5 Cent Cigar

Issue date: 2/26/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Danielle Oliva URI's Parfait Bitee tries to break away from the St. Joseph's defense. Bitee had 19 points in Rhody's loss.

Media Credit: Danielle Oliva Will Daniels drives past the Hawks' defense for a basket. Daniels scored 24 points in the loss.

02/26/08 - As the sun set outside the Ryan Center Sunday afternoon, inside the University of Rhode Island men's basketball team's hopes of an at-large NCAA Tournament bid also appeared to sink below the horizon.

The Rams lost a 90-83 decision to St. Joseph's University yesterday, their fourth straight loss and fifth in the last six contests. The Hawks shot the lights out from the field, finishing the game at 62.5 percent, including 9-for-16 from three.

"We're a little bit shaken right now with losing the games that we've lost, and our team is a little rattled, and that happens," Rams head coach Jim Baron said.

Senior forward Will Daniels, who finished with 24 points on 7-for-12 shooting from the floor and 7-for-8 from the free throw line, echoed some of the same thoughts after the team's loss.

"We're struggling. You know, I don't know any other way to put it. We're struggling," Daniels said.

In each of the four losses the Rams have struggled at the defensive end, allowing an average of 90.2 points per game.

"We put a lot of emphasis on change and pushing the ball, but again I didn't think that we would be giving up this many easy buckets," coach Baron said.

At Sunday's game there was a man sitting in the stands a few rows back near half court screaming, "wake up" over and over again, and for most of the game it appeared as if the Rams could have used this advice.

"We let them get out to an early lead. I don't know if it was the time or if we weren't awake, but we knew what type of team they were," Daniels said. "I think our start hurt us most."

At one point early in the second half coach Baron was calling one play, freshman point guard Marquis Jones was calling another and sophomore Jimmy Baron was on the wing trying to direct people where they should be on the floor.

Bottom line, it was sloppy play early on that dug the Rams a grave too deep to crawl out of.

Trailing by as many as 19 points early in the second half and by 15 with 5:52 left in the game, the Rams began to slice into the deficit.

Senior Joe Mbang knocked down a pair at the free throw line and sophomore Delroy James buried a jumper on the ensuing possession to cut the Hawks lead to 74-63, the closest since it was a 46-35 game two minutes into the second half.

Rhody was able to shave it to six on a 3-pointer from senior Parfait Bitee with 39 seconds to go, but were unable to claw any closer. Bitee turned in another solid performance for the Rams and finished with 19 points, three assists and zero turnovers.

"I thought we made a good comeback, but against a team like this that can defend and score you can't put yourself in that kind of hole," coach Baron said.

James saw significant minutes for the second straight game, joining Daniels and Bitee in double-figures with 13 points.

The Rams (20-8, 6-7 A-10) return to the road for a 7:30 p.m. start against George Washington University Wednesday, looking to get back on track before closing the regular season at LaSalle University and at home against Charlotte.

"Losing hurts. Losing definitely hurts and I think everybody can agree with that," Daniels said. "When you're playing in not only close games, but games so close together in the season and you're losing it definitely drains you."

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