After a disappointing season closes with a loss, Rhode Island basketball regroups ahead of Atlantic 10 tournament

SOUTH KINGSTOWN — One last chance.

That’s the positive note on a disappointing season for the URI men's basketball team as it looks ahead to Atlantic 10 Conference play next Tuesday as the 14th seed against La Salle.

“We’ll regroup,” coach Archie Miller said after Davidson defeated the Rams, 68-54, in their regular-season finale on Saturday night. “We have one more opportunity on Tuesday at some point in time. We’ll give it a go there and try to advance. That’s what you’re trying to do.”

More:Rhode Island basketball snaps skid, edges Loyola Chicago on the road

Rhode Island finished 9-21 overall and 5-13 in conference play.

"We’re going to go to Brooklyn. We’re going to prepare really hard to advance. That’s what you do in a conference tournament," Miller said.

“One win creates a little bit of momentum. If you win, you play somebody the next day and we’ll see how that goes.”

During three of Miller's seasons at Dayton, the Flyers won two Atlantic 10 Conference titles and, after the 2017 season, he earned Coach of the Year honors. In addition, Miller led Dayton to four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances including a run to the Elite 8 in 2014.

Prior to arriving at URI, Miller notched six 20-win seasons in his 10 years as a head coach (at Dayton and Indiana), and in 2015, was a finalist for the Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year Award.

Nevertheless, Miller said he didn't go into this season with high expectations.

“I didn’t have any expectations,” Miller said. “I think when you come into a new place, whether it’s the first couple of places I’ve been or here, you’re really going to have to figure out your guys and know what you’re dealing with.

“I think unlike any other place I’ve been, we didn’t really didn’t know what we had until the ball went up in our first game. When that ball went up against Quinnipiac in November, I looked out and said, ‘I’m not really sure who’s going to be able to do what or how we’re going to play.' From that point forward, we really had to look hard at our team. But we’ve grown. We’ve developed. We’ve had some guys really improve during the course of the season. We’ve gotten a lot better. But in all reality, as we started the season off, there were a lot of unanswered questions at the beginning. I think that’s part of it when you get started.”

On Saturday against Davidson, the Rams were hurt by turnovers, a common problem this season.

“We played very tentative and as a result we turned the ball over 20 times [Davidson scored 14 points off those miscues] at home against a team that typically doesn’t turn you over very much.”

This season, the Rams lost eight games by an average of 3.4 points per game.

“A lot of different games could have gone another way for us,” Miller said. “There are a lot of teams in college basketball that find a way to win those games. And we’re not ready to do that right now. We were close a few times. We played good ball a few times. We competed very hard against good teams."

The Rams were a young team — had only one senior, Malik Martin, six freshmen and five sophomores.

“We had a lot of inexperience,” Miller said. “We had a lot of first-year players, whether they were first-year players in college or first-year players hitting the floor for the first time.

“So, we had a lot of unproven guys and a lot of inexperience. That’s why I think it was so key for Jalen [Carey, a redshirt junior] and Malik to kind of step up. Both guys are older. Both guys had college experience. I think Ishmael [Leggett] really grew. I’d be really disappointed if he wasn’t the most improved player in our conference. He wasn’t all-conference but he had a great year for us.”

Another challenge the Rams found hard to overcome was getting victories on the road. URI finished 1-10 in road games and snapped a 15-game road losing streak in last Wednesday’s victory at Loyola-Chicago.

As for Saturday's game, Davidson led, 20-18, at halftime and gradually opened its lead, due in part to URI turnovers. Leggett paced the Rams with 14 points. Foster Loyer led the Wildcats with 33 points as Davidson improved to 15-15 with the victory.

DAVIDSON (68): Mennenga 1-7 3-4 5, Bailey 2-3 0-0 4, Huffman 6-8 1-1 14, Loyer 10-22 8-8 33, Watson 0-6 3-4 3, Skogman 0-2 4-4 4, Kochera 2-6 0-0 5, Spadone 0-1 0-0 0, Logan 0-0 0-0 0, Ghedini 0-0 0-0 0, Matheny 0-0 0-0 0, Sosnik 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 21-55 19-21 68.

RHODE ISLAND (54): Stewart 1-4 2-2 5, Carey 1-6 0-0 3, Leggett 6-16 1-1 14, Martin 3-5 0-0 7, Thomas 2-6 1-2 6, Weston 3-6 5-6 11, Tchikou 3-4 0-0 6, Samb 0-0 0-0 0, Hutchinson 1-1 0-0 2, Ball 0-0 0-0 0, Pierre 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 20-48 9-11 54.

Halftime — Davidson 20-18. 3-Point Goals — Davidson 7-24 (Loyer 5-13, Huffman 1-1, Kochera 1-4, Mennenga 0-2, Skogman 0-2, Watson 0-2), Rhode Island 5-17 (Carey 1-1, Martin 1-3, Leggett 1-4, Stewart 1-4, Thomas 1-4, Weston 0-1). Rebounds — Davidson 27 (Skogman 9), Rhode Island 31 (Stewart 8). Assists — Davidson 12 (Huffman 4), Rhode Island 9 (Leggett 3). Total Fouls — Davidson 15, Rhode Island 20. A — 5,543 (7,657).

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Rhode Island men's basketball loses to Davidson, heads to A-10 tourney