Rhode Island failed to execute one of the simplest tasks in their Atlantic 10 opener on Sunday night: make shots. The Rams (9-6, 0-1) shot a putrid 24.6% from the field in losing to Xavier 72-45 at the Ryan Center, the Musketeers’ sixth consecutive win in a league opener. Shooting wasn’t an issue for Xavier (9-5, 1-0), who hit 68.4% of their shots in the second half and 53.2% for the game. Tu Holloway led all scorers with 21 points while Jamel McLean added 19 and 12 rebounds for the victors. As for the Rams, who next visit Richmond Thursday night, Delroy James (13 points) and Nikola Malesevic (12 points) reached double figures on a night that saw Rhode Island continuously fire away from deep (3-for-27 3PT) despite being ice-cold all night. Not only did Xavier shoot a superior 42.9% from three but they also outscored the stagnant Rams 38-10 in the paint.

Xavier got off to a good start in what would eventually become their first road victory of the season, jumping out to an 11-4 lead on a Jordan Latham layup with 14:35 remaining in the first half. But the Rams were able to answer with an 8-0 spurt featuring six points from Malesevic to take a one-point lead at 12-11. The Musketeers answered with a 12-0 run of their own and from that point forward their defense didn’t allow the home team to run much of anything offensively. From the 5:04 mark of the first half Rhode Island went nearly eight minutes without a field goal, snapping that cold streak with a Malesevic layup with 17:14 left in the game. Luckily for Jim Baron’s team they were down by just 12 (35-23) at that point, but the Musketeers then scored 14 of the next 18 points to take a 49-29 lead following a pair of Holloway free throws with 8:33 to go.