La Salle comes up short against Rhode Island

More and more, this is looking like an almost season at 20th and Olney. La Salle almost has enough players to be a real factor in the Atlantic 10. The Explorers almost look like a very good team during long stretches of games. The key hoop almost goes in. And then it ends badly.

Surprising Rhode Island was at Gola Arena last night. What went down was a microcosm of both team's seasons. La Salle led 2-0 and never again. URI ran out to a big second-half lead. La Salle kept pushing the rock up hill, got close enough to see the other side of the mountain and never got to the summit.

URI won it, 90-83.

La Salle was matching Rhode Island shot for shot in the first half. There was just one problem: Actually, there were 14 of them. The Explorers committed 14 turnovers before the Rams committed any. That has to be some kind of record.

"As much as you try to prepare, we can't simulate Rhode Island's press,'' La Salle coach John Giannini said.

They simply don't have enough bodies for that, not when they are playing four-on-fourin practice.

URI (18-3, 6-2 Atlantic 10) was alternately getting steals, bombing in threes and running the ball to the rim where, more often than not, the play was finished with a dunk.

And no matter how well you are shooting, you can't win when you don't get shots up. By halftime, La Salle was shooting 55.2 percent overall, 75 percent from the arc, trailing by a dozen and had given up half a hundred plus three. How is that possible? Turnovers, way too many turnovers, and in the wrong part of the court, leading to easy hoops for a team that already was playing with a lot of confidence.

Nobody was defending with Alamo-like passion. There were lots of blocks (15) and way more uncontested shots.

After losing the 3,000 points that Jimmy Baron and Kahiem Seawright gave them, the Rams really figured to go backward. Instead, they are in play for an NCAA berth and having one of their best seasons in years.

"I had a lot of question marks coming into this year,'' Rams coach Jim Baron said. "That's why they picked us eighth. We didn't know where we were going to get our scoring, where we were going to get our shooting.''

The Rams are 11-2 in games decided in single digits and 8-2 on the road. Start winning a few close ones and you start to believe. URI's players believe.

La Salle's players, those who are left, would not be human if they did not have doubts. Giannini figured he would be playing with four 1,000-point scorers by this stage of the season. Kimmani Barrett (fractured bone in foot) is almost certainly gone for the season. Ruben Guillandeaux (stress fracture) has played just four games. Yves Mekongo is five points shy of 1,000. Rodney Green is at 1,766 points and counting.

"It's not a lack of effort and it's not a lack of ability,'' Giannini said.

The numbers tell you that.

"I thought we played really hard,'' Giannini said. "I thought we gave ourselves a chance against a very, very good team. I thought we had the ball attacking the basket . . . where we could have made it really interesting. None of those [chances] went well for us.''

URI looked home when it led, 66-50, with 14 1/2 minutes left, but La Salle had a big run coming. Abandoning a passive zone for an aggressive man-to-man, the Explorers came hard.

Four times they had the ball down by three points. A Green layup stayed out with 7 minutes left. A Green turnaround from the left block somehow stayed out with 5 minutes left. Green slipped in the lane on a fastbreak and was called for traveling. Finally, down 82-79 with just over a minute left, Green looked like he was getting to the rim. His shot was blocked. Almost had become what Giannini rightly called a "tease.''

La Salle (11-11, 3-5) got 34 points (14-for-19 shooting) from its freshman starters, Aaric Murray and Parrish Grant. Green had 22, but had a handful of shots that looked like they had to go in, but didn't.

"I take a huge part of this loss,'' said Green, who also had 12 rebounds and five assists. "I missed a lot of easy shots I never miss.''

Of course, if Green doesn't attack as he did, the game never gets close enough to matter anyway.

All five of URI's starters got double figures and its bench outscored La Salle's, 25-6. La Salle could not do much with URI's big man, Will Martell (16 points on 8-for-11 shooting).

The game's tone was set in the first 4 minutes when URI's Lamonte Ulmer, who was 0-11 from the arc on the season, dropped in two threes. Neither shot made a complete revolution on its way to the rim. Tim Wakefield would have been proud.

"Even with all that, we have the ball a few times in the last 2 or 3 minutes right at the rim . . . with a chance to make a play,'' Giannini said. "And we just don't.''