URI men's basketball conquers Concordia in preseason game

11/6/08 - The University of Rhode Island men's basketball team welcomed Concordia University to the Ryan Center Monday night with a preseason blowout victory, 123-84. URI excelled offensively but did not meet its expectations on the defensive side of the court.

"We've got to learn how to run, but we've got to contain them too," junior and forward Delroy James said. "They got 84 points and that's too many points for us to give up. We're not going to score 123 points every game so the defense has got to get better."

James led the way for Rhody, scoring 24, 14 of which came in the first half. He collected six boards, while rejecting one shot and getting in the passing lane for three steals. After URI won the opening tip, James set the tone for the game when he went baseline against a Concordia defender and dunked for the game's first two points.

Rhody's next trip down resulted in an easy lay-up by senior shooting guard Jimmy Baron. He had a few opportunities early but did not get hot until about the nine-minute mark, when he nailed his first three. Baron's three gave URI a 32-24 lead and he would add on to that moments later.

After Concordia's inbound pass was stolen, Baron took the ball hard to the hoop and got fouled in the act of shooting. The career 91 percent free-throw shooter knocked down both shots. Baron would go on to score 20 points while dishing out five assists.

"We had three guys with 20 plus points," Baron said. "I think you're going to see a good effort but again we need to improve on the defensive end a little more. I feel good about our team. We're out there and we love playing with each other and we love being around each other."

Also scoring 20 was junior guard Keith Cothran. After nailing a three early, Cothran stayed hot, scoring nine of his 20 points in the first 12:26. Cothran stayed quiet for the remainder of the first half, which was highlighted by a buzzer-beating three-point field goal by freshman guard Jamal Wilson.

Cothran expressed confidence and excitement in the younger players that will need to fill big roles this season after the graduations of Will Daniels, Parfait Bitee and Joe Mbang.

"They look to us like big brothers," Cothran said. "They're not cocky and they want to get better."

Wilson, finished his first game as a Ram with nine points, five rebounds and three assists.

"We're going to take it one game at a time," Cothran said. "We've got some big games ahead and this year we're going to be successful."

James and Cothran will need to step up this year and become the leaders URI lost from last year.

"There's not too much pressure," James said. "Last year we learned a lot from them, so coming in we knew we'd have to fill those shoes, and those are some big shoes to fill. We just want to take one game at a time."

The second half started much like the first half did. After a Cothran jump-shot less than two minutes into the half, URI stole the inbounds pass, which led to another James dunk. James collected his 19th and 20th points with 11:12 remaining in the game, going baseline for his third and final big dunk of the game.

"I think it's exciting," head coach Jim Baron said. "I think we have athleticism that we've never had here. We have depth and we have added on to what we started two years ago. We're really pushing the ball."

Wilson proved to the Rhody faithful that he could play defense as well, coming up with a steal in the passing lane just over four minutes into the half. Wilson finished off the play with a two-point jumper in the corner, extending the Ram lead to 76-47.

Concordia made some noise when it completed an 8-0 run at the 7:40 mark, cutting Rhode Island's lead to 97-72. Two free throws from Rhody sophomore center Will Martell ended the run and extended URI's lead to 99-72.

Senior forward Kahiem Seawright scored 15 points and collected eight boards, while sophomore guard Marquis Jones scored seven points and had seven rebounds. Junior forward Ben Eaves had 11 points and six rebounds.

"The guys have been working real hard in preparation for this type of scenario," coach Baron said. "Now we got Rhode Island College who will be fired up to play against us. The nice part about these guys is that we're having some guys emerge. You have to have some balance and you have to have some guys stepping up, and I thought we had that tonight."

Rhode Island was without junior forward Lamonte Ulmer, who was benched for violating a team rule. The amount of time Ulmer will miss is undetermined.