By Paul Gotham
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – Dan Hurley did better with game results than flight plans this weekend.
Not sure what that means for his chances at the casino.
E.C. Matthews and Xavier Munford combined for 56 points as the University of Rhode Island Rams erased a double-digit halftime deficit to defeat the St. Bonaventure Bonnies, 87-78 in Atlantic 10 Conference action at the Reilly Center, Saturday night.
Matthews and Munford scored 34 after the break as URI won on the road for the first time in conference play.
“Obviously really proud of our young guys,” Hurley said. “With such a young team for us to come back from down ten at the half and put for the type of effort we had in the second half.”
Munford’s steal and layup at the 11:53 mark of the second stanza capped a 12-4 run as Rhody grabbed its first lead since 10:32 of the first half.
“We’re just getting better,” Hurley said of his team which improved to 3 wins and 10 losses in A-10 play. “This league is brutal, good. We’re better than we were last year…We’ve been knocking on the door and been in control against some very, very good teams. I just think that we’re getting better, and that we have some good, young players.”
Matthews, a five-time conference Rookie of the Week, drilled a catch-and shoot three to give URI a lead it never surrendered at 71-68 with three minutes remaining in the game.
“Matthews and Munford played extremely well,” St. Bonaventure Head Coach Mark Schmidt stated. “They got on a roll, and we couldn’t stop them. I told our guys a couple of days ago, ‘when you have good guards like that, they can steal games.’ We let them get it going a little bit and once they got it going, it was hard to stop them.”
Matthews extended it to a two-possession game when he converted a pair of one-and-one free throws. The native of Detroit, MI made it 81-73 with two more from the charity stripe, part of a run as the Rams connected on 14 of 15 free throws in the game’s final 2:43.
Matthews netted 24 on the night hitting 8 of 16 from the floor including 2 of 5 behind the arc and 6 of 7 at the free throw line.
Down seven early in the first half, Munford capped a 14-2 URI spurt with a trey from the right corner for a 21-16 Rams advantage.
Hassan Martin started the run with a tap in. Gilvydas Biruta scored on an inbound play. Jarelle Reischel drove the lane for two before Matthews nailed a pull up three from the top of the key and followed with a runner off the window to give Rhode Island its first lead of the night at 18-16.
Bona responded and outscored the Rams 12-2 over the next 3:05 of game time.
Matthew Wright hit a pull-up three on the break. Charlon Kloof converted an and-one. Jordan Gathers tipped a loose ball to Wright who fed him for a layup. Youssou Ndoye and Marquise Simmons each hit pairs of free throws, and SBU led 28-23.
Denzel Gregg sparked Bona to a 10-point lead at the half. The freshman forward blocked a shot and went the length of the floor for a layup. He took a high-low feed from Wright and used the rim as a screen for a lay in and made it a 43-33 contest when he took a Wright dish slashing through the lane and finished in traffic.
But the Rams held Bona to 13 of 29 (44.8 percent) shooting after the break including 1 of 9 behind the arc.
“We did a little bit better job defensively of taking what we wanted to do in scouting and applying it,” Hurley explained. “Sometimes with young teams once the bullets start flying guys forget which guys we’re going under on ball screens, which guys we’re going over and hedging hard. We were just in a little bit of a daze in the first half.”
Munford had a game-high 32 on 10 of 19 shooting including 3 of 6 from long range and a perfect 9 of 9 at the stripe.
Biruta added 11.
Ifeanyi Onyekaba grabbed a game-high eight rebounds as Rhody held a 40-26 advantage on the boards.
“We didn’t defend. We didn’t rebound,” Schmidt commented. “That’s why we lost.”
Ndoye posted a career-high 21 for the Bonnies on 6 of 9 shooting from the floor and 9 of 11 at the line.
Wright followed with 20 and four assists. Kloof netted 12 points and handed out four helpers.
URI outscored Bona in the paint (42-40) and in second-chance points (16-8).
“This could be a real springboard for us,” Hurley noted. “We’ve got three conference games left. We’ve got two at home. We feel like we’ve played the best teams in this conference very,very well. If we can just keep our guys from getting defeated with the losing that happens when you’re at this stage of program-building that we’re at, when we get to that Barclays Center, we feel like we have a chance to beat anyone we play.”
Weather impacted URI’s trip to Olean. Originally, the Rams planned to leave by plane from Providence, Friday and stay at the nearby Seneca Allegany Casino. Instead after a series of cancellations because of the fog and spending much of the night in the airport, the Rams stayed overnight in Providence. The first available flight Saturday morning was at 9:45 am which got the Rams to the casino/hotel just in time for a pre-game meal around 1 pm and a bus trip to the Bonaventure campus for a 4 pm tipoff.
“Sometimes that just gives you a bit of that resolve,” Hurley said of the travel challenges. “Something that you can talk about with the kids. Sometimes, it narrows your focus as a team.”
Hurley’s resolve will be tested a little more. His team’s flight home was…like the plans Friday, postponed. Instead of leaving after the game, URI will fly home Sunday at 11 am. Blackjack tables beware!
URI travels to UMass Wednesday for a 7 pm tip. The Bonnies who fell to 16-11/6-7 travel to La Salle also for a 7 pm tipoff.
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