(Image courtesy of William Korn Photography)
PROVIDENCE, RI – After jumping off to a hot start in the unfriendly confines of Providence’s Amica Mutual Pavilion, Rhode Island was unable to hold their early lead and fell to their in-state rival 90-71.
The Rams bolted out to a 14-2 lead to begin the game, forcing an early timeout from Providence head coach Kim English before the first scheduled under-16 media timeout and eliciting a chorus of boos from the Friar faithful.
Providence came out of the break firing, with Estonian freshman sharpshooter Stefan Vaaks going on a 12-0 run all by himself, making four straight three pointers to tie the game at 14. Those boos from Providence fans quickly turned to cheers.
In a somewhat humourous exchange after the game, Vaaks and English addressed those boos.
“When I first had a Zoom call with Kim [English], he told me we have some of the best fans in America,” Vaaks said. “And I think we can be better than that as fans, we’re three minutes into the game we gotta do better.”
English, the former George Mason head coach who has endured his share of criticism from Providence fans during his three years with the program, interrupted his freshman star, “They weren’t booing you. They were booing me. They love you.”
The rest of the first half was a back-and-forth affair, with Rhode Island using a 10-2 run near the end of the frame to keep it close. The Rams went into the break down 37-41 and were very much within striking distance.
The second half started much like the end of the first, with both sides trading blows and keeping the score tight. At about the 14 minute mark, redshirt-senior forward Drissa Traore nailed a three, his first of the season, to give Rhode Island a 53-52 lead. That would end up being the Rams’ last lead of the game.
Rhode Island’s offense mostly consisted of St. Bonaventure transfer and redshirt-junior guard Jonah Hinton creating his own shots and taking deep, NBA-distance threes. Hinton ended up with 23 points while shooting 8-17 from the field and 7-14 from three.
Unable to do much else besides give the ball to Hinton on the perimeter, Rhode Island’s offense stalled out and Providence went on a 16-2 run after Traore’s three, effectively putting the game out of reach.
“Our inability the last ten minutes to take the last punch and keep us in the game was probably the most disappointing today,” Rhode Island head coach Archie Miller said. “The inability to score off turnovers, not turn the ball over in transition when we did have the advantage really sort of bit us.”
Despite forcing 15 turnovers, Rhode Island was only able to score 10 points off of those turnovers.
Vaaks continued to play solidly for the Friars, ending with 18 points and four assists. Fellow Providence freshman Jamier Jones also had 18 points off the bench, shooting a perfect 7-7 from the field and energizing the raucous AMP crowd with highlight-reel dunk after highlight-reel dunk.
One of the biggest reasons why Rhode Island was having such a difficult time finding scoring beyond Hinton’s three point shooting was because of how dominant sophomore center Oswin Erhunmwunse was in the paint for Providence. He finished with 10 points, eight rebounds and six blocks and stifled Rhody’s smaller front line.
This game showed some real offensive flaws for Rhode Island. While Providence is a Big East opponent, they are ranked below A-10 teams George Washington, Saint Louis and VCU in KenPom and are just six and seven spots ahead of Dayton and George Mason. Providence was beatable and could have been a signature non-conference victory for the Rams. If Rhode Island is not able to find some sort of consistent scoring beyond Hinton’s individual three point shooting, they could have a lot of trouble in conference play, especially against some of the league’s more dominant big men.
The Rams have three more games left in their non-conference slate. Up next for them is a home game on Tuesday against a very strong McNeese team, who beat GW 92-86 earlier this season and has shown that they are one of the premier mid-major programs in the country.
