NEW: URI's Matthews Named a Finalist For Inaugural Jerry West Award
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NEW: URI's Matthews Named a Finalist For Inaugural Jerry West Award
The other 15 candidates are:
Tyler Haws, Brigham Young
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTTyler Harvey, Eastern Washington
James Blackmon Jr., Indiana
Sheldon McClellan, Miami
Rashad Vaughn, UNLV
Trevor Lacey, NC State
Jerian Grant, Notre Dame
D'Angelo Russell, Ohio State
Buddy Hield, Oklahoma
Joseph Young, Oregon
D'Angelo Harrison, St. John's
Chasson Randle, Stanford
Malcolm Brogdon, Virginia
Ron Baker, Wichita State
Marcus Thornton, William & Mary
The Jerry West Award
The Jerry West award recognizes the top shooting guards in Division 1 men's college basketball. This comes after Matthews was named to the Bob Cousy Award national watch list.
The finalists will be narrowed down to 16 by early March and the winner will be named on April 10 at the new ESPN College Basketball Awards Show live from Club Nokia in Los Angeles.
E.C. Matthews
E.C. Matthews leads URI with 16 points per game and has seven games with at least 20 points. Matthews has also reached double figures in 19 of URI's 24 games.
The Rams are coming off one of their biggest wins of the season, beating UMass 75-59 on Wednesday, February 18 to remain in first place in the A-10.
URI returns to action on Saturday, February 21 when they visit George Mason. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m.
Five Takeaways From the Rams 75-59 Win Over UMass
Hassan Martin
Hassan Martin picked up his seventh double-double of the season with 11 points and ten rebounds against UMass.
Martin's 11 points came on 3-of-6 shooting from the field and 5-of-7 from the free throw line.
Martin also had four of the Rams five blocks in the game. Martin now has 156 career blocked shots.
Second chance points
Gilvydas Biruta led URI with four offensive rebounds and URI as a team had 11.
Off those 11 offensive boards, the Rams cashed in for nine second chance oppurtunities.
UMass grabbed six offensive rebounds and only cashed in for three points.
By comparison, in the last meeting between these two rivals, UMass had 18 offensive rebounds and cashed in for 18 second chance points.
Big improvement by URI in this game.
E.C. Matthews
In one of the biggest games of the season to this point, E.C. Matthews stepped up and led the Rams with 16 points on 4-of-10 shooting from the field and 6-of-8 from the free throw line.
Since missing the St. Bonaventure game with a foot injury, Matthews has been in double figures in four of the six games he has played in, including a 26 point performance against Richmond.
The only negative for Matthews against UMass was his six turnovers.
Defense
URI's defense went into lockdown mode, especially in the second half when UMass cut their deficit to six, 36-30, and the Rams responded with a 12-3 run to take a commanding lead.
UMass didn't get closer then nine points the rest of the way. This marks the 11th time this season that URI has held an opponent to under 60 points in a game.
The Rams forced 18 turnovers, nine of which were steals and also had five blocked shots in the game. T.J. Buchanan led URI with three steals in the game.
The Rams cashed in for 21 points off of the UMass turnovers.
UMass shot 45% from the field but 33% from three-point land.
1st Place
With the win, URI now reaches the ten win mark in conference play for the first time since the 2008-09 season when they went 11-5 in the A-10.
The win also keeps URI in a tie for first place in the A-10 with #25 VCU. Dayton is a half game back at 9-3 but did not play on Wednesday night.
This win will also help the Rams RPI as UMass came in with an RPI of 37 while the Rams had an RPI of 70. URI needs their RPI to drop a bit more to help their NCAA tournament chances.
With all of this said, URI now goes on the road to face 3-10 George Mason on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. A loss there and all of this pretty much goes out the window.
