An Attendee's Highlights of URI vs. GW: Rhody Escapes Disaster

Feb 2, 2017
4 min read

Before getting into this game recap, let's talk about the precursor to the game. If URI lost at home to a weak GW team, their chances at an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament would be going R.I.P. Fortunately, the Rams were able to pull off a key comeback around the 5:30 mark in the second half and won an 82-70 contest that could have swung either way.

With snow blanketing all of the Kingston campus, classes at 5pm or later cancelled, and roughly 700 Greek Week members expected to be attending, the game was supposed to be a marvel. The attendance and the crowd was anything but exciting. In fact, the crowd of 5,190 was over 1,000 fans less than the crowd who showed up to the Saint Bonaventure game. Most specifically, the student crowd, specifically the 200's and 300's were an embarrassment. The only 2 times they gave a notable reaction was when free T-shirts were being thrown into the crowd and when URI was clearly going to win with under 25 seconds left in the game. Personally, I sympathized for URI's hype man, known as "JV" because he tried countless times to get the "Greeks" involved and it was to no avail.

Getting into the game, there was no defense played in the first half and GW held a 39-35 advantage at the half. Just like I predicted correctly in the game's preview again, the Colonials offense ran through and revolved around Tyler Cavanaugh. He got rolling at the very beginning when he picked Jeff Dowtin's pocket to give the Colonials a 7-6 lead early with 16:53 left in the first half. On the other side, 16 big points from Hassan Martin and 8 from Jared Terrell was leading the Rhody charge. Also, Christion Thompson got URI out to a 23-15 lead at the 9:59 mark off a 3 and a big block but the Colonials kept plugging away offensively.

Moving into the second half, GW's Matt Hart and Josh Sina hit a couple of big 3's that gave the Colonials advantages on the scoreboard throughout the majority of the second half. At 11:09 left in the second half, the Colonials held a 57-52 lead and they showed me that they had a few more capable scorers than I originally thought. Before the next media timeout (the U8), the loud parts of the crowd were able to rally behind the team and specifically after a technical foul that was charge to GW's head coach, Maurice Joseph. From where I was standing, Joseph was clearly right that Kuran Iverson had stepped out of bounds when he still had the ball and it should have been Colonials ball. With that said, the referees did not agree and charged the tech, much to the elation of the crowd, including me. This technical foul was the turning point in the game that turned things around for the Rams.

Following two contested layups by both Tyler Cavanaugh and Jeff Dowtin, the game was tied 62-62 at the under-8 media timeout. When crunch time began approaching, with the score tied 69-69, Rhode Island's #12 and #32 refused to let their team lose. First, Hassan Martin started it off with an and-one layup on the offensive side of the ball and then Terrell came up with a huge block on a Watanabe 3-point shot. Shortly thereafter, Terrell drove hard into the lane and got an and-one of his own to bring the game to a 76-70 lead going into the final media timeout at the 2:47 mark (and his 1 free throw remaining). For the final 2 minutes of play, URI came up with the stops they were looking for all game, including a massive block by Kuran Iverson that I thought was going to come flying into the student section. All in all, 4 of the URI starters, besides Matthews scored in double digits, including 23 from Martin and 17 from Terrell.

Two players who were expected to be key parts of this game that never showed up in either half were Yuta Watanabe and E.C. Matthews. Watanabe had 4 points on 2-7 shooting to go along with 5 ugly turnovers. With that said, Maurice Joseph utilized Watanabe's length on defense to frustrate Matthews all night. With 16:30 left in the second half and GW leading, Arnaldo Toro outmuscled Matthews at the rim for a defensive rebound on what was a 50-50 ball. For a player with NBA aspirations, Rhody's #0 needs to come down with those types of possessions. On the ensuing offensive possession for URI, E.C. took an ill-advised jumper over Watanabe that barely hit the rim. Overall, Matthews had just 8 points on 2-6 shooting, including a 3-pointer with the game already in hand.

In some miscellaneous news, Hassan Martin missed 3 wide open dunks, which never happens and I know no one ever wants to see again. Also, congratulations to Jared Terrell, who scored his 1,000th point early on in the game. The trio of Terrell, Martin, and Matthews have all scored their 1,000th points respectively, during the current 2016-2017 season.

Hey, at the end of the day, Rhode Island escaped with the win and everyone's favorite GW player did not.