Rhode Island Advances Thanks to Overtime Dagger 3 by E.C. Matthews

Yeah, so that game was fun. You had Trae Young vs Fatts Russell in the second half. Then you had E.C. Matthews cooking in overtime leading Rhode Island to a 83-78 win over Oklahoma.

We’ll start with Trae Young because that’s what the internet is talking about. He was saddled on the bench for a good portion of the first half after two offensive fouls, both of which everyone agrees is questionable at best. However, he was efficient early. He hit his first couple shots and looked to get his teammates involved. The key was early, his teammates were hitting shots. You see that’s been the problem for Oklahoma as much as people want to talk about Young. Outside of Young, the Sooners went 1-for-11 from three and 20-for-51 from the field. Those numbers aren’t good. They are in fact what people call bad. Yes, there were questionable shots in overtime for Young, but when you see those numbers, what do you want him to do? Sure, maybe take a little more time, but he was cooking at that time and we’ve seen him get hot and do things like that. So, the Trae Young show officially comes to an end. I think he’ll still go top-8ish in the NBA Draft and be a fine player in the NBA. You have to remember he’ll have more space and have guys that can finish around him. He’s not  going to be pulling like he did at Oklahoma. However, defense is obviously a concern.

Getting from there, you have to talk about E.C. Matthews and Fatts Russell. When Oklahoma was starting to take control of the game in the second half and looked like they were about to extend the lead, Fatts Russell became a household name. This is a dude who shot just 28% from three on the season and averaged six points per. He went 3-for-6 from three for the game and those shots were massive.

Then in overtime it was E.C. Matthews. He took advantage of the mismatch with Young, shaking his way to get into the lane and dish to teammates. However, it was his dagger three with about 45 seconds left that really did it in. Matthews waiting at the top of the key, danced a little and set up a crossover over Odomes when he pulled up from dead on. That pushed the lead to 5 and sealed it.

Rhode Island now moves on to face the winner of Duke/Iona. If they get Duke, URI needs to clean up rebounding as it was a bit of a mess today. That said, the four guard lineup can do some damage against Duke’s 2-3 zone. You attack the zone by passing and then defeat it by shooting. URI is a good passing team and that’s why they would have the shot against Duke.