Dayton Destroys an Attendee's Happy Friday
Given an audience of 6,105 and entirely filled student sections, URI was getting ready to do battle at home with #19 Dayton. The Ryan Center did an admirable job hyping this game up after all of the issues that Rhode Island had to deal with during this season. With the free RI T-shirts that all students were given, which surprisingly had a great design, I was ready to see the Rams beat the 19th best team in America.
Besides an amazing and-one layup at the end of the first half from Dayton's Scoochie Smith, there were not many notable highlights in the first half, as the Flyers took a 37-33 lead into the half. URI' s offense was fueled by efficient shooting behind the arc by Four McGlynn, who was finally stepping up in a big game. The only noticeable trend was that the referees would allow these two teams to embark in a physical game without blowing the whistle too many times. Also, Sam Miller from the Flyers really had his little heart set on shooting 3's even though he was air balling wide open 3's. Oh well, A for effort I guess. I don't believe his coach Archie Miller was very happy with his shot selection however because his face was as red as a tomato whenever Sam Miller shot a 3. If this was not evident enough, there was a member of FIJI under the influence who noticed the Dayton head coach's reaction to the ugly 3's and he decided to say something. This FIJI member yelled out, "Oh my god, this guy is about to have a damn aneurysm. Calm the f**k down!" I was in tears of laughter.
There was an interesting occurrence during halftime in which a group of fraternity members present in the 200 section at the game almost fought a kid and all of his friends because he told them to sit down and stop jumping up and down. Personally, I thought that the fraternity's enthusiasm was needed since URI rarely drew a good student crowd ever since E.C. tore his ACL in the first game of this season. Nevertheless, stay classy as always my fellow Rhodies.
Then, the second half got underway and Rhode Island and Dayton began throwing as many jabs as they could at one another until they could try to knock the other out. That separation never came as the Rams and Flyers answered each other at every turn. With the game tied at 58 and 3:25 remaining, Jared Terrell stepped up in the big moment and hit a go-ahead 3 in the Ryan Center, reminiscent of his shot against Nebraska 1 season back. When the clock began running under 1 minute, Hassan Martin tried to put the Rams on his back. After his monumental AND-1 and a successfully made free throw, URI was up 66-64 with 25 seconds left. On potentially Dayton's final possession of the game, the Flyers ran a play and executed to perfection when the Rhode Island defense broke down and left Darrell Davis wide open in the corner for a go-ahead 3. This looked exactly like the 3 that Jack Gibbs hit in the previous season that shattered URI's NCAA hopes. You can imagine how I felt as I saw Davis' shot swish through the net. This was yet another close game and another loss in Rhode Island's doomed season. With every starter that played double-digit minutes scoring double-digit points, this was yet another tragic, heartbreaking loss for Rhode Island in the Hurley era.
As calm as I was after this defeat, I was ready to blame the person to the left that I attended the game with. Maybe it was their smelly scarf that threw everyone in the Ryan Center off just enough so that URI would lose. Ultimately, I ended the night having to console a die-hard Rhody fan who had lost their voice from screaming the whole game. Good friend or na? Maybe that's the only thing I took away from the solemn night, I was a good friend and a loyal fan.
