KINGSTON, R.I. – The William & Mary men's basketball team valiantly rallied from a 18-point second-half deficit, but could not get over the hump in falling at Rhode Island, 73-62, on Thursday night. The Tribe (5-5) whittled the Rams' lead to as little as three points with five minutes remaining behind a strong second-half defensive effort, but URI (8-4) answered with a game-clinching 8-0 run.
 
Senior Daniel Dixon led the Tribe with 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting, including 4-of-8 from 3-point range. Fellow classmate Omar Prewitt added 12 points, while junior point guard David Cohn turned in a nice stat line of 10 points, six rebounds and five assists. Junior Greg Malinowski shared team-high rebounding honors with six to go along with nine points.
 
Leading by 13 at the half, E.C. Matthews scored six-straight points, including an old-fashion three-point play just over five minutes into the second half, to extend the Rams lead to its largest at 53-35. The Tribe responded with a 13-0 run led by Dixon to close within five. The senior guard scored eight-straight points, including back-to-back 3-pointers. The first came on the break following a Nathan Knight block, while the second closed the gap to 53-48 with 11:30 remaining.
 
The Tribe had a number of missed opportunities to draw closer and potentially tie the contest. A Prewitt free throw cut the deficit to 60-57 at the 5:34 mark. Unfortunately, he missed the second attempt, and the margin remained three. A Dixon 3-pointer from the right wing on the ensuing W&M possession would have tied the contest but was off the mark. With 4:41 remaining, Prewitt missed the frontend of a 1-and-1 would have pulled the Tribe closer.
 
Rhode Island, on the other hand, scored eight-straight points to put the game out of reach. Matthews canned a 3-pointer during the stretch, while Jared Terrell added five, including the game-icing three-point play with 1:10 left to increase the lead to 68-57.  
 
Defensively, W&M limited the Rams to just 28.1 percent (9-of-32) from the floor in the second half, including 3-of-14 from 3-point range. URI shot 39.1 percent (27-of-69) overall for the game and were only 6-of-24 (25 percent) from distance. The Rams connected on 81.3 percent (13-of-16) from the free throw line. The biggest difference for Rhode Island was converting 16 W&M turnovers into 21 points.
 
The Tribe finished the contest at 42.9 percent (21-of-49) from the field. W&M shot 41.2 percent (7-of-17) from 3-point range against a team that entered the game holding foes to less than 30 percent from distance. Junior Jack Whitman tallied eight points, four rebounds and three blocked shots, while Knight scored nine points and pulled down five rebounds off the bench.
 
After Rhode Island scored the game's first four points and carried that lead through the opening five minutes, the Green and Gold used a 7-0 run to gain its first advantage. A Knight slam along the right baseline followed by a Dixon 3-pointer gave the visitors their first lead at 15-12 with 13:09 remaining in the opening half.
 
The Green and Gold led 22-20 following a Prewitt 3-pointer at the 9:26 mark, but URI answered with a 15-2 run to open up a double-digit lead. Matthews led the way with six points during the spurt, while Stanford Robinson added five. Garrett knocked down a jumper to cap the run and give the Rams a 35-24 lead with just under four minutes remaining. The URI lead reached as many as 15 in the closing stages in the first half, before a Cohn driving lay-up in the waning seconds narrowed the gap to 43-30 at the intermission.
 
Matthews led all scorers with 23 points to go along with nine rebounds for URI. Terrell finished with 14 points and Cyril Langevine pulled down a game-high 17 rebounds.
 
The Tribe returns to action with a final non-conference game of the season at Old Dominion on Thursday, Dec. 29. The game carries a 7 p.m. tip and the live stream of the game can be purchased via CUSA TV. Tribe fans can also catch the men's basketball action over the Tribe Radio Network with Jay Colley and Charlie Woollum on the call. The Tide 92.3 FM and 107.9 Bach FM are the flagship stations of the Tribe Radio Network and the audio is also available over the Web at TribeAthletics.com.