Rhode Island Starters
Fatts Russell, Jeremy Sheppard, Antwan Walker, Malik Martin, Makhel Mitchell
 
Davidson Starters
Hyunjung Lee, Sam Mennenga, Carter Collins, Kellan Grady, Luka Brajkovic
 
How it Happened
After a hot start, Rhode Island went ice cold as it dropped its third straight game, falling to Davidson, 67-58, in the Atlantic 10 opener for both teams Friday night.

Junior Malik Martin got off to a scorching start, hitting his first three shots, all from 3-point range. His torrid shooting helped the Rams (3-5, 0-1 A-10) jump out to a 13-8 lead by the first media timeout. Rhode Island made seven of its first eight shots from the field, pulling ahead 19-13 after a short jumper from Jermaine Harris.

Davidson (4-3, 1-0 A-10) chipped away, eventually taking the lead after Hyunjung Lee hit a 3-pointer to make the score 27-26. The Wildcats got another 3-ball from Lee at the buzzer to bring a 32-28 lead into the break.

Rhody scored the first seven points of the second half to take a 35-32 lead. However, Davidson used a 13-0 run to take a commanding 52-39 lead with 7:21 to go. Rhode Island had a 9-0 run of its own to get back within three points at 54-51 following an Allen Betrand 3-pointer. That was the closest the Rams got.

Inside the Box Score

• After making seven of its first eight shots, Rhode Island was just 15-of-47 (31.9 percent).
• Junior Malik Martin scored a career-high 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting. He was 4-of-6 from 3-point range.
• The rest of the team was 3-of-15 from deep.
• Sophomore Makhel Mitchell also had a career high in points, netting 12. He added six rebounds, two blocks and two steals.
• In his Rhode Island debut, junior Allen Betrand contributed eight points and one steal in 11 minutes.
• Senior Fatts Russell was limited to five points, all in the second half. He did provide six assists, four rebounds, one block and one steal.
• Russell is now in ninth place in program history with 337 assists. He passed Parfait Bitee (331 from 2004-08) and Stan Wright (333 from 1975-78) on URI's all-time list.
• Redshirt junior Antwan Walker had 10 rebounds.

Up Next
Rhode Island has its longest break of the season, as it is off until Dec. 30, when it hosts St. Bonaventure. Game time is 4 p.m. on ESPN+ and Cox/YurView. Until then, happy holidays.