Rams Bounce Back, Roll Santa Clara 66-44 in Orlando
GoLocalProv SportsTeam
Rams Bounce Back, Roll Santa Clara 66-44 in Orlando
See the five takeaways slideshow below
The Rams led Santa Clara 35-27 at halftime but came out of the locker room and put on a defensive clinic, holding the Broncos scoreless for nearly ten minutes, while URI put up 14 unanswered points.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTE.C. Matthews led the Rams with 19 points including knocking down five of the seven three pointers that he took in the game. Matthews also had three rebounds, one assist and one steal in the URI win.
Santa Clara was led by Brandon Clark who had 14 points for the Broncos in the loss.
The Rams will next face the winner of the game between Georgia Tech and Rider. No matter who wins, URI will play on Sunday evening, November 30 at 6:30 p.m. The game will be shown on ESPNU.
See the five takeaways from URI's bounce back win below.
Five Takeaways From URI's 66-44 Win Over Santa Clara
Biggie Minnis
After his last game against #11/12 Kansas was not very good, one point and three turnovers, Biggie Minnis had a bounce back game against Santa Clara.
Minnis had seven points, two rebounds and a team leading five assists in 24 minutes against the Broncos in Orlando. This was his best game of the season so far, and URI will be hoping he is able to build off of it.
Jared Terrell
Freshman Jared Terrell only had five points in his first game on a national stage against #11/12 Kansas on Thanksgiving.
In his second game, on a national stage, Terrell had 13 points, three steals, two assists and two rebounds. He was the second leading scorer on the team behind E.C. Matthews.
Terrell will have a third chance to shine on the big stage on Sunday evening.
Offensive Rebounds
URI out rebounded Santa Clara 31-17 in the game, more impressively, dominated the offensive glass with 13 offensive rebounds.
The offensive rebounding led to the Rams dominating the second chance points category, outscoring Santa Clara 14-5 in that department.
Santa Clara had seven offensive rebounds in the game.
E.C. Matthews
Rhode Island basketball fans are really seeing something special so far this season. In Providence, LaDontae Henton has been tremendous for the Friars, and at URI ,E.C. Matthews has been just as impressive for the Rams.
Against Santa Clara, Matthews had 19 points, one assist, one steal and three rebounds in the game. He knocked down five of the seven three pointers that he attempted and went seven of nine from the field. The only thing he didn't do was shoot a free throw.
Matthews is a Bob Cousy Award nominee, and he is playing like it so far this season.
Lock down defending
The Rams led at the half 35-27 and then, came out in the second half with some lockdown defense.
They held Santa Clara scoreless for nearly ten minutes in the second half, while Rhode Island scored 14 unanswered points to blow the game wide open.
The Rams also forced 13 turnovers, seven of them steals ,and scored 24 points off of those turnovers.
