Rams bounce back at Northeastern

Rams bounce back at Northeastern

Once again, Delroy James took matters into his own hands.

James finished with a game-high 25 points Wednesday as the University of Rhode Island men’s basketball team coasted past Northeastern, 79-67, at Matthews Arena despite a bit of a slow start.

Northeastern (2-5) jumped out to an early nine-point lead, but the Rams (6-3) eventually got their act together and scored the final five points of the opening half to grab a 40-38 lead at the break. Three of those points to close the half came on a 3-pointer by James, who has led the team in scoring in seven of nine games this season.

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Rhode Island opened up a seven-point lead within the first five minutes of the second half and never looked back. James shot only 6-of-15 from the floor, but his 12 of his 13 free-throw attempts while Marquis Jones scored 15 points on a solid 4-of-5 from the field and Nikola Malesevic added 13 points in his first collegiate start.

The Rams got off to an equally-slow start Saturday at Providence, but were unable to stave off the Friars. The difference this time was they clamped down defensively in the second half, limited Northeastern to 28 points on 32 percent shooting. Rhode Island closed it out at the free-throw line, hitting 7 of their 8 attempts from the charity stripe in the waning minutes.

Wednesday’s win evened the Rams’ road record at 2-2. Rhode Island will close out its three-game road trip Saturday at Quinnipiac and then take the week off before hosting New Hampshire next Saturday at the Ryan Center.