WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Simply put, the Rhode Island College men's basketball team was bigger, quicker and more athletic than Eastern Connecticut State University Wednesday evening at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.
And the final results bore this out as the Anchormen cruised to a 20-point halftime lead and were never headed in an 85-52 Little East Conference victory.
Eastern (4-13, 1-7 LEC) had dominated the series recently – winning five in a row and 11 of the last 14 – but that recent success proved to be a distant memory Wednesday as Rhode Island (12-5, 5-3 LEC) improved to 7-2 away from The Murray Center this year in ending a string of three straight losses at Geissler Gym.
The Anchormen entered play only one game over .500 in the conference, but it was a misleading statistics as the team's losses had come to the top three teams in the conference in Keene State College, Western Connecticut State University and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
Coming off its first LEC win over the year Saturday, 72-71 in overtime at Plymouth State University, Eastern remains in a three-way tie for seventh in the nine-team conference with Plymouth and VTSU Castleton (both of whom lost Wednesday). The top six teams qualify for the LEC tournament next month.
Rhode Island put this game away early, holding Eastern scoreless for four minutes and outscoring the Warriors 16-2 over five minutes to amass a 13-point, 23-10 lead midway through the first half. Leading by 20 at the break, the visitors never let the lead dip below 18 the rest of the way.
Featuring a starting frontcourt standing 6-foot-7, 6-6 and 6-5, the Anchormen outrebounded Eastern by 22 and held a 32-point advantage in the paint. RIC shot 52.2 percent from the floor, buoying the percentage with numerous uncontested inside baskets.
Six-foot-7 inch junior Isiah McCallam led four double-digit scorers with 23 points (9-of-12 FG, including 5-of-5 from distance), with 6-foot-6 inch senior Ousmane Kourouma adding ten points and 15 rebounds and freshman CJ Wilson eight points, nine rebounds and five assists.
Eastern turned the ball over only 11 times in the game and recorded ten three-point field goals, but shot just 28.8 percent overall from the floor. Having totalled 18 points over 11 games, first-year junior transfer Amarre Spence (Hartford) collected 14 points (4-of-6 three-pointers) in 22 minutes off the bench but was Eastern's only double-digit scorer. First-year forward Jeremiah Graham (Jackstonville, FL) grabbed a team-high eight rebounds and sophomore guard Dominick Dao (Terryville) had eight points and six rebounds.
Eastern visits the University of Massachusetts Boston Saturday at 1 p.m.