Box Score
London Warren and Kurt Huelsman each scored season-highs, but it wasn’t enough as Rhode Island edged Dayton 65-64 Tuesday at the University of Dayton Arena. The loss ended UD’s 30-game homecourt winning streak, which is a school record.
Warren and Chris Wright each scored 12 points, with Chris Johnson adding 11 points and Huelsman scoring 10 (4-4 FG) and grabbing a season-best and game-high nine rebounds. Huelsman started his 120th straight game for the Flyers, giving him sole possession of the Flyer record for consecutive starts. Warren came up with a career-high five steals against the team that leads the Atlantic 10 in turnover margin.
Dayton led by nine at halftime, 33-24, but Rhode Island battled back to take a five-point lead, 54-49 with 7:49 to go. UD answered with a 12-2 run to hold a 61-56 lead with 2:20 left in the game. URI’s James Delroy then made two of three free throws, Lamonte Ulmer scored on a put-back and Will Martell grabbed James’ airball and laid it in to put the Rams up 62-61 with 30 seconds to go.
Fifteen seconds later on the next Flyer possession, Chris Johnson was fouled shooting a three, and he converted all three free throws to put Dayton up 64-62. URI’s Marquis Jones answered with a long-three-pointer off a high ball screen and when Mickey Perry’s 25-footer bounced off the rim, Rhode Island handed the Flyers their second straight one-point loss (UD lost 60-59 at Saint Joseph’s on Saturday).
Dayton falls to 14-6 overall and 3-3 in the Atlantic 10. All six losses have come in the final minute and are by a total of 22 points. Rhode Island improves to 16-3 overall and 4-2 in the A-10. It was URI’s seventh win on the road this season.
The Flyers are back in action on Saturday, January 30 when they travel to St. Bonaventure for a 7:00 p.m. ET tipoff.
Quotes from Tuesday Night's Game
Head Coach Brian Gregory
“I told our guys earlier this week that if we won this game then all of our problems wouldn’t be solved. We would still have some flaws that we needed to work on. If we lost, that didn’t mean we didn’t make the progress that we needed to make, and unfortunately at this point it’s a loss. We started to get back to how we can be more successful. I thought our defense was really, really good. We weren’t as good especially during an eight-minute stretch on the glass. I thought for the first time that they were quicker to the ball and outworked us on the glass. It’s tough and a bitter pill to swallow at times. Their last two possessions before Jones hit his three were forced into air balls, and they got two points on both of those plays. When you play a good team, the margin of error is smaller. We made just enough mistakes not to win that game. That is disappointing.”
“Our pressure was good. They weren’t able to blast the ball down the court and get anything quick. The guy just made a heck of a shot.”
“Our defense was really good. That team averages 80 points per game. Our team defense was much better. There was a couple occasions where we probably needed to step up and individually get a couple more stops. That will always be a challenge for us and we will need to be better at that.”
“I thought London Warren played tonight like the London Warren we need the rest of the season. He was tremendous on defense. That is a team is one of the top in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio and we forced 15 turnovers and they only had 10 assists. It shows that defensive intensity that we played with.”
Kurt Huelsman
“We knew Rhode Island was a good team coming in. They fight, they are scrappy, they pressure the ball and take care of the ball. At the end of the game we had a lot of turnovers off their pressure. In a lot of games it’s not the first shot that gets you, but the second one.”
“It means a lot. The coaches have a lot of confidence in me, believe in what I do and trust me a lot.”
“You have to take it the same with a win or a loss. You have to look at film and look at what you did well and what you didn’t.”
Mickey Perry
“It was a double ball screen and he hit a tough shot. Chris got right in his face. Give Rhode Island credit, they battled. We just have to pick it up and get ready for the next one.”
“A couple of their shots they hit in transition. If they get going, they become much more confident. They had a couple of easy looks, they already have their rhythm. You have to get on them early. We made some plays down the stretch and CJ (Chris Johnson) hit some big free throws down the stretch, but we didn’t do enough.”
London Warren
“We just have to keep getting better in practice. We got out-rebounded today and we’ve been doing well earlier. We didn’t get the key rebounds. Give Rhode Island credit, they made the plays down the stretch and turned up the intensity.”
