Antwan Walker and Jeremy Sheppard each scored 15 points to help Rhode Island beat Boston College for the second time in five days Sunday, a 71-65 win at the Sunshine Slam event in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Walker came off the bench to score his season-high point total on 5-of-5 shooting from the field, including a pair of 3-point shots. Ishmael El-Amin and Malik Martin each scored 11 apiece for the Rams.
Rhode Island (4-1) bounced back from its first loss of the season, a 77-71 setback Saturday against Tulsa in its tournament opener.
Jaeden Zackery scored a career-high 19 points to lead Boston College (3-3), which has lost three straight. The Eagles fell 68-61 to Utah in their Sunshine Slam opener on Saturday.
James Karnik had a season-high 15 points and 13 rebounds, Makai-Ashton Langford scored 12 and DeMarr Langford Jr. added 11 for the Eagles.
Last Wednesday, the Rams defeated the Eagles 57-49 in Kingston, R.I. El-Amin had 12 points to lead Rhode Island in that one while T.J. Bickerstaff posted career highs with 22 points and 15 rebounds for BC.
On Sunday, the teams were neck and neck for the first 11 minutes of the game before the Rams went on a 16-4 run to lead 31-18, leading to a 34-24 halftime advantage.
Rhode Island opened that lead to 15 point leads on Walker’s layup in the first six minutes of the second half. BC regrouped with a 14-2 push to pull within 46-43 on Kanye Jones’ jumper with 9:21 to play.
El-Amin scored eight of his team’s next 10 points to give the Rams some breathing room at 56-47. The Eagles remained in contact, and Ashton-Langford’s 3-pointer with 33 seconds left brought them to within 66-62 before Makhel Mitchell answered with a dunk nine seconds later and Sheppard sank three last-minute free throws to seal the deal.
–Field Level Media
