Nightmare Saturday: The Worst Day in RI College Basketball History?
Sunday, March 05, 2023
Saturday may have been the worst day ever in Rhode Island basketball history. Three Division I programs had their bids for the Big Dance dashed, and all four D-I men’s teams -- and the URI women -- lost.
Going into the weekend, four men's teams and one women's team had hopes of making the NCAA tournament. After the brutal Saturday, just Providence College and URI men's teams are alive.
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Bryant Men Bounced - Done for the Year
The sixth-seeded Bryant University men's basketball team fell to third-seeded New Hampshire, 67-60, on Saturday afternoon at Lundholm Gymnasium.
With the loss, the Bulldogs see their season come to a close with a 17-13 record. The Black and Gold dropped five of their final six on the year.
URI Women - Heartbreak Again
For the second year in a row, the Atlantic-10 tournament turned into heartbreak for the University of Rhode Island women's basketball team.
The Rams (24-6) fell behind by as many as 21 points in the first half. Saint Louis (16-17) dominated both ends of the floor. Reserve forward Peyton Kennedy scored 16 points on 7-of-7 shooting as the Billikens scored 24 points in the paint. Defensively, Saint Louis held Rhode Island to 20.0 percent from the floor (7-of-35), including 4-for-17 from 3-point range.
A furious second-half comeback was not enough as No. 2 Rhode Island fell to No. 3 Saint Louis in the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 Championship Saturday.
The Rams have probably lost out on their chance for the NCAA tournament. They could be invited to WNIT tournament.
PC Men’s Nightmare
The No. 20 Providence College men's basketball team was beaten by the Seton Hall Pirates (17-14, 10-10 Big East), 82-58, on Senior Day on Saturday at home. The Friars fell to 21-10 on the season and 13-7 in the conference.
It was the third Friar loss in the past four games. PC goes into this week's Big East conference needing to regroup quickly. There were few kind words spoken about the Friars' performance on social media.
For the Friars, the season continues -- PC will travel to the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden. The Friars will play their first game on Thursday, Mar. 9, at either 2:30 p.m. (No. 4 vs. No. 5 game) or 9:30 p.m. (No. 3 vs. No. 6/11 game) in the Quarterfinals. The game will be televised on FS1.
Brown Fails to Qualify for Ivy Tournament Again
The Brown men's basketball team fell to Yale 84-75 on Senior Night Saturday night at the Pizzitola Sports Center. The Bulldogs claimed a share of the regular season Ivy Title with the win, while the Bears missed qualifying for Ivy Madness with the loss. Brown has never qualified for the Ivy top-four tournament since it was established in 2017.
Brown lost three out of four final Ivy games. The Bears' season is over unless it plays in a third-tier pay-to-play post-season tournament. Brown finished 14-13 (7-7 in Ivy League).
Martin tried to make sense of the late collapse. "I look at where we were last year and I look at growth and improvement," Martin said. "There is still a lot left in front of us, a lot of improvement and growth necessary, and it hurts that we've come up short, but if I just look at everything that you analyze and evaluate a team on, I see a much better team right now than we were at this time last year ... We should feel good about the direction and where we are at despite coming up short."
URI Men Lose for the 21st Time
Davidson beat the URI men 68-54 Saturday night at the Ryan Center. URI suffered through a brutal season and the Rams are 9-21 and 5-13 in the A-10.
Rhode Island will be the No. 14 seed in the 2023 Atlantic 10 tournament, which begins Tuesday, March 7 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The Rams will face No. 11 La Salle at 4:30 p.m.
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