WKU Basketball: Tops Head East, Lose Heartbreaker to Rams in Overtime

The Hilltoppers spent the weekend before Christmas traveling to Rhode Island to take on the Rams. This was a matchup that featured competition from the Atlantic 10 Conference. The storyline that surrounded today’s game was the lineup changes and how the team would continue to move on after the season-ending injury to center Charles Bassey.

Coming off wins to Arkansas & Kentucky Wesleyan, Rick Stansbury kept the starting lineup the same as of recent, having Carson Williams on the opening tip. The game started with a 9–4 run courtesy of the Hilltoppers lead, which included back to back 3’s from Williams and Jared Savage. The game was tied at 9 following the first timeout at 15:42 in the first half. Halfway through the half, the Tops shot an abysmal 28.6% from the field as they started to cool off and let the Rams take over the pace of the game.

On the opposite side, Rhode Island had five early turnovers which resulted in seven points for the Tops going through the halfway mark. Coming down the stretch, The Rams quickly enlisted services off the bench from Antwan Walker, a Georgetown transfer who added four points, a pair of rebounds, a steal, and an assist to help add to the Rams 24–20 lead with Stans taking a timeout at 7:40 in the 1st half. Their lead increased to 31–26 in the last moments after the Tops were fundamentally outhustled. In the closing minutes, The Tops took trips to the foul line to use important free throws to say in the game and avoid bigger leads. Tyrese Martin led the Rhode Island ball club with 15 points.

Carson Williams led the Tops with 16 points at the half, including a buzzer-beating triple to cut the Rams lead to 36–35. The Tops shot an increase of 35% from the field, 40% from three-point land and hauled in 23 rebounds.

Moving on to the second half, Rhode Island spared no time in increasing their lead. The Rams started to rout the Tops with an 11 point differential at the first timeout of the second half at 15:42, leading 49–38. It was also a half where nothing went our way but slowly got better over time. Jordan Rawls cut the lead to 61–57 with a triple under eight minutes left. With the late timeout, the Tops were within 6 points as The Rams kept leading 63–57 at 7:01, regarding the solid efforts of Taveion Hollingsworth.

With two minutes left in the second half, The Tops were down 70–65. Hollingsworth scored a layup to cut the difference within 3. After a rebound, Carson Williams cut the total to being down one point off the fastbreak. At the timeout called by URI, they continued to lead 72–69. at 2 seconds left, another timeout was called following another Hollingworth jumper, 72–71. Yet again, Carson Williams saved the Tops with another heroic buzzer-beater to tied the game at 74 in regulation.

Going into overtime, it was back and forth until Rawls was fouled, sending a three-point play to tie the game at 79 with 2:23 left. Savage did not give up as he hit a three-pointer as the rams were still leading 84–82 with 16 seconds left in OT. It just wasn’t enough as Rhode Island survived 86–82.

Here are some postgame thoughts in today’s game:

• The defensive hustle started slow but improved as the game went on. Without the second-half heroics, overtime would’ve never existed, especially in a challenging road environment.
• This was also a game where the presence of Bassey was definitely missed. Matt Horton should've been playing in this game. As the only true big man on the roster, I can’t fathom any reason as to why he did not have an appearance today.
• Camron Justice was not very productive. It’s been a slow stretch for him over the past few weeks.
• Jared Savage wasn’t the best when it came to his passes. His inaccuracies accounted for a great number of the Tops turnovers. He continued to miss threes at times where they were needed.
• Jordan Rawls added great offensive effort of the bench. I feel like it’s time to give him a starting look.
• Josh Anderson continues to make contributions as a new starter.

This was a frustrating loss. All situations aside, our men wanted this one. The Hilltoppers now have a 7–4 record, looking to return home with an interstate showdown with OVC power, The Belmont Bruins.

Here are the final stats from Kingston, RI: