Rams defeat Brown, can't hang on at No. 5 Blue Devils

11/18/08 -

Friday night at the Ryan Center, the University of Rhode Island men's basketball team opened its regular season with a 76-74 win over Brown University.

Sunday afternoon the Rams played another close game as they came up short against nationally ranked Duke University, 82-79.

The Rams shot just 39.1 percent from the court, but were able to turn it on late against Brown in a game that featured 10 ties and seven lead changes.

"I thought it was a dogfight of a game," head coach Jim Baron said. "This is a team that's very physical and aggressive. The shots weren't falling early."

Senior guard Jimmy Baron led the Rams with 17 points, all of which came in the second half. Eight of those points came late in the game to re-take the lead.

"Tale of two halves offensively and defensively," Baron said. "Brown came out and played a great game. I think that Kahiem, myself, and some of our other energy guys finished the game out strongly."

Two other Rams hit double figures as senior forward Kahiem Seawright tallied 15 points and junior guard Keith Cothran added 16.

Brown dominated in the paint outscoring the Rams 44-20. The Bears also shot 50 percent for the game.

"We got to do a much better job on the defensive end," Coach Baron said. "To be honest we really didn't know what they were running. We didn't really scout them, we didn't have a lot of time to figure out what they were doing."

The Rams turned the ball over just three times and outscored Brown 12-2 in points off turnovers keeping them in the game.

"I thought we did a good job of not turning the ball over," coach Baron said. "There were a lot of inexperienced guys out there. We're gonna learn as we move forward."

The first half was dominated by Brown, who shot over 50 percent and led by as many as nine points. But the Rams cut the lead trailing only 33-29, despite shooting 31.6 percent for the half.

The Rams came out strong in the second half, shooting 50 percent from field and 17-20 from the line. The Bears kept the pressure as URI battled from behind for most of the second half. The Bears took a 64-59 lead with 6:44 to play when the Rams took over. Baron hit a three-pointer with just less than two minutes to play to cap off a 12-1 Rhody run that put them in the lead, 71-65.

The Rams were able to hit free throws down the stretch to secure a 76-74 victory.

"This was a really good win for us, to come out ahead especially when we were struggling early," coach Baron said. "We got to keep getting better at watching the film, breaking it down and keep learning."

Sunday afternoon the Rams headed to historic Cameron Indoor stadium for the first time in history for the first regular season meeting against Duke.

"I think they are a final four team," coach Baron said. "A lot of these games early on are games of trying to get your guys to keep coming together."

Senior Jimmy Baron knew the importance of mental preparation heading into a hostile environment.

"I would say being, mentally prepared, teams lose at Duke before they even walk into Cameron Indoor Stadium," Jimmy Baron said. "To get to our goals we need to play these types of games."

It was a different story for the Rams, who came three points shy of pulling off one of their biggest upsets in school history at Duke. The Rams led most of the game shooting 59.1 percent from the court and 71.4 percent from behind the arc.

Baron matched his career high with eight three-pointers to lead all scorers with 24 points; seven of those three-pointers came in the second half, he was 8-10 from behind the arc. Junior Delroy James was 9-12 from the floor scoring 21 points. James also collected eight rebounds leading them to a 31-29 advantage on the boards.

Despite turning the ball over 17 times, the Rams played right with the No. 5 Blue Devils, stretching a lead to as large as 12 points (34-22) with 3:33 to go in the first half.

But Duke came on strong late with an 11-0 run to cut the lead to one heading into halftime.

The Blue Devils took the lead right after halftime 35-34, but Rhody would not go away, reclaiming the lead and holding it to until the game's final minute.

The Rams continued their outstanding shooting in the second half. They looked poised for the upset as Baron drained a three-pointer with 3:01 remaining in the game, putting the Rams up 77-71. Duke sophomore Kyle Singler and junior Jon Scheyer were able to bring the Blue Devils back and in front by one with some key free throws.

James put the Rams back in the lead 79-78 after converting on his free throw attempts. On the next possession Singler was fouled by James and made two clutch free throws putting Duke in the lead by one with 19 seconds to go in the game.

After URI and Duke both took timeouts to set up a play, the Rams had the ball with 10.6 seconds left on the clock. Baron took the inbound pass and missed a jumper with Singler in his face as the ball went out of bounds with 4.9 seconds on the clock.

Scheyer was fouled and was able to convert both free throws putting Duke up 82-79. The Rams had one last chance as Baron missed a prayer from half court and Duke narrowly escaped with a win.

At 1-1, the Rams will look for another victory Thursday night as they head to Monmouth University.