2011 Rhode Island Rams Basketball: Rhode Island vs St. Bonaventure

If anything was learned from this past week in the Atlantic 10 it was that there isn’t much separating many of these teams, scrapping the preseason thought that teams such as Temple and Xavier were far and away the class of the league. While there’s still plenty of time for that to change Sunday afternoon’s matchup between Rhode Island (11-6, 2-1) and St. Bonaventure was another example of this balance as the game wasn’t decided until the final seconds. A pair of Marquis Jones free throws with 7.5 seconds remaining proved to be the difference in a 56-55 URI victory at the Ryan Center in Kingston. After the foul shots the Bonnies (9-7, 1-2) turned the ball over, failing to get a final look at the basket. St. Bonaventure guard Michael Davenport led all scorers with 28 points (grabbing 12 rebounds as well), doing his best to pick up the slack for a foul trouble-plagued Andrew Nicholson (nine points and five rebounds in 24 minutes) but falling just short.

Orion Outerbridge led three Rams in double figures with 15 points off the bench, but on a day that saw both teams fail to shoot 40% from the field (SBU 38.0%, URI 35.6%) turnovers ultimately decided the outcome. The Bonnies turned the ball over 14 times to URI’s eight, with nine of those coming in the second half. Neither team led by more than seven points in the game, with the first half being a seesaw battle that consisted of Rhode Island’s balance vs. Davenport. The junior scored 18 points in the first stanza, accounting for seven of the Bonnies’ 10 made field goals. A Demetrius Conger layup just before the buzzer gave St. Bonaventure a 29-28 lead at the intermission following a Jones three that gave the Rams a 28-27 lead with 1:31 remaining.

The halfway point of the second half seemed to represent the point in which the Bonnies would take control of the contest as Nicholson became increasingly active and Davenport received offensive assistance. But after a Davenport jumper with 5:31 remaining put St. Bonaventure up 55-48 the visitors failed to score another point, missing their final eight field goal attempts. From there Delroy James (12 points, six rebounds) shook off a bad day from the field (3-for-16) to make big plays late, including the offensive rebound and pass in the final seconds that led to Jones being sent to the charity stripe. Next up for Rhode Island is a trip to St. Joseph’s on Wednesday night while the Bonnies return home to host Xavier the same night.

Atlantic 10 Conference Basketball Fans

Rhode Island Wins Second Straight