The Independent – March 12, 2017
PITTSBURGH – Well look who found their way to the dance floor.
In a 17-year drought and on a bumpy ride for much of this season, the University of Rhode Island men’s basketball team is on its way to the NCAA Tournament. The Rams beat VCU 70-63 Sunday at PPG Paints Arena for their first Atlantic 10 championship and first trip to the Big Dance since 1999.
“We just earned that trophy, and that’s because of the special group of guys that I got to coach here,” head coach Dan Hurley said. “A resilient, tough group of winners.”
The Rams had pictured Sunday’s celebration for a long time. Coach Dan Hurley rebuilt. Hassan Martin and E.C. Matthews committed to a struggling program when the goal was far off. The Rams delivered a breakout in the 2014-15 season but a loss in the A-10 semifinals kept them on the outside looking in. The injury-marred 2015-16 campaign gave way to high hopes this year that looked derailed at several stops.
Now the Rams have reeled off eight consecutive victories and will be dancing later this week.
While players have been waiting for this chance since they arrived in Kingston, they were toddlers when the wait began for Rhody fans. Lamar Odom’s buzzer beater in the 1999 A-10 title game provided the last March Madness moment for the Rams. Near-misses like the 2007 A-10 Tournament final loss, the 19-3 start that turned into an NIT bid in 2010 and seven losing seasons followed.
When URI lost to Dayton in February, it was another in a string of missed opportunities since a signature win over Cincinnati. When it dropped its next game to lowly Fordham, tournament hopes seemed dead.
URI hasn’t lost since.
“Everything panned out how it’s supposed to,” junior Jared Terrell said. “It just made us stronger.”
The Rams finished the regular season with five consecutive wins, beat St. Bonaventure in the A-10 quarterfinals and dominated Davidson in Saturday’s semifinals. Sunday against VCU – which was making its fifth consecutive A-10 title game appearance – it was more of the same in the early going. URI cooled down after a blistering start and VCU made run after run in the second half but Rhode Island held off every one and ultimately never trailed in the game.
“I just think we got so much resiliency from what we went through last year, what we went through at different parts of this year,” Hurley said. “I just think that came to the forefront late in the year when we got healthy. And then when we got to Pittsburgh, we were loose, but man, we were locked in. These guys, every video, every practice, they carried themselves like pros. They weren’t going to leave here without that trophy.”
For the third straight day, the Kingston-based Rams raced out of the gates and for the second day in a row, a 3-point shooting barrage staked them to a big early lead. They made five of six 3-point attempts in the first eight minutes of the game. E.C. Matthews – who was 4-for-4 from beyond the arc in the semis – buried one from the left wing on Rhode Island’s first possession, He added one more, with Jared Terrell, Kuran Iverson and Stanford Robinson also getting in on the act.
VCU – fresh off a semifinal in which it scored 56 points in the paint versus Richmond – missed 16 of its first 20 shots from the field. When Hassan Martin slammed home a dunk with 8:59 left in the half, Rhode Island’s lead was 17.
“We played with a lot of confidence here,” Hurley said, “because we were able to jump on teams early.”
The action was more even from that point on, but URI weathered a foul trouble storm over the last five minutes of the half, bumping a lead that had dipped to 10 points back up to 13 at the break.
Much like its regular season meeting with VCU, though, Rhode Island had to hold on for dear life. With Martin and Iverson picking up their third fouls early in the second half and VCU ramping up its defense, the lead shrunk to six thanks to a 9-2 VCU surge. Back from the bench, Hassan Martin ended the run with a putback of an Iverson missed 3. After an empty VCU trip, Terrell hit a leaner, got fouled and made the free throw to bump the lead back to 11.
VCU came back again with six straight points and JeQuan Lewis trimmed the deficit to five – the smallest it had been since the 17-minute mark of the first half – on a driving layup with 9:38 left. After the teams traded a free throw each, Jarvis Garrett made one from the line. When he missed the second, Cyril Langevin slithered in for an offensive rebound and putback. On the heels of an empty trip by VCU, Matthews buried a step-back 3-pointer with the shot clock running down to again get the advantage back to 11.
One more time, VCU moved within five, then three on a Lewis layup with 1:17 left but Matthews hit a tough leaner. After a Justin Tillman floater, Terrell made two free throws then came up with a steal. Robinson pounced on the loose ball and called timeout. Matthews made two more free throws, VCU missed its last look and the celebration was on.
“These games get won by players making winning plays, coming over and getting a big deflection or making a big steal,” Hurley said. “VCU was surging and then that steal just got the momentum back and gave us a lot of confidence.”
Terrell scored a game-high 20 points. Matthews tallied 19 and earned the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award, finishing the three-game tour with 58 points. Martin, who grabbed an all-tournament honor, had 11 points, five rebounds and three blocks.
URI now awaits its NCAA Tournament destination.
The trip will be 17 years in the making.
“I think we’re built to compete,” Hurley said. “We are an elite defensive team and we have the type of wing players in Jared and E.C. that have the ability to carry us for different points. We have inside strength. We have shot blocking. We have depth. We play as hard as any team in the country. I think we’re well-prepared. We will be ready.”