The Abyss: Rams Lose Again in OT [VIDEO]

KINGSTON – St. Bonaventure’s Youssou Ndoye only played 11 minutes on Wednesday night, but unfortunately for the University of Rhode Island men’s basketball game, he saved his best effort for the final 1:38.

After his team lost starting frontcourt players Andrew Nicholson and Da’Quan Cook to foul trouble, two players who had combined for 34 points and 12 rebounds, Ndoye came off the bench to inexplicably dominate the final 90 seconds.

Ndoye stormed the lane with 1:17 left, with Matthew Wright finding him on the cut for an easy, thunderous dunk. He followed it up with a steal with 26 seconds remaining, and a vicious stuff of a drive by URI’s Mike Powell with 14 seconds left.

In the same 90-second stretch to close out overtime, the Rams missed four shots and turned the ball over. When the dust cleared, URI had dropped another close game, 72-66, to St. Bonaventure.

Once again, the Rams (3-18, 0-5 Atlantic 10) had chances to win at the end of regulation, but struggled to get clean looks in the final minute. With 1:48 left, Wright hit a jumper to put St. Bonaventure up by two.

Andre Malone took a contested 3-point shot with 1:15, which rimmed out. However, Orion Outerbridge had one of the best rebounds of his URI career, corralling the shot off the offensive glass and rolling right for the finish off the glass.

St. Bonaventure (11-7, 4-2 Atlantic 10) got an open look for Demitrius Conger for 3, but he missed, giving URI the ball with about 41 seconds left. The Rams got two more shots at the basket in regulation, but both were contested 3-point shots by Malone, and neither had much chance of going in.

The inability of the Rams to execute down the stretch negated good work in the first half to get Nicholson and Cook in foul trouble. Nicholson finished 7-for-10 with 16 points, but only played 26 minutes and fouled out with 3:31 remaining in overtime after a drive by Billy Baron. Cook fouled out with 2:47 trying to defend a pick-and-roll between Powell and Outerbridge.

However, the Rams also struggled with fouls. Freshman Jonathan Holton fouled out in overtime, finishing with 16 points and 11 rebounds, although he only had two boards after halftime. Outerbridge was limited to 29 minutes after picking up a fourth foul in the second half, which the coaching staff bitterly contested to officials, claiming he only had three.

And, while Billy Baron and Powell combined for 20 points and 8-for-9 shooting from the free throw line, they also had nine turnovers and just seven assists on 5-for-17 shooting.

The sold attendance for the game was 3,225, with probably about 2,500 actually showing up. The Rams will attempt to their current six-game losing streak 7 p.m. Saturday at the University of Dayton (14-6, 4-2 Atlantic 10).

URI next plays at home 7 p.m. next Wednesday, Feb. 1, against the University of Massachusetts (15-5, 4-2 Atlantic 10). It is Shotgun the Cow bobblehead night, which certainly sounds interesting.