Coming off their first loss of the season the Pirates come back on the court Sunday to face the Rhode Island Rams in the consolation game of the Hall of Fame Tip-off at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. The loss dropped the Pirates to 2-1.
The Pirates will go into the game led by junior Fuquan Edwin, who continues to lead the team on both ends of the court with 22 points and 3.3 steals a game. Head coach Kevin Willard believes that it is his defense which leads to the offense.
"Fuquan, in the second half, really turned it up defensively and really cause havoc defensively which got his offense going," Willard said. "When he's creating havoc for us we are really good."
Against the Rams the Hall will also need to fill the void left from Mobley's knee injury, which will require him to miss significant time. Juniors Patrik Auda and Brian Oliver should expect to see the biggest increase in minutes because of this.
Auda is currently averaging 8 points and 3.7 rebounds a game while Oliver averages 7.3 points and 2.3 rebounds.
As a team Willard also has the extra challenge of making his players get accustomed to playing with rotations they have not practiced with as much on short notice against Rhode Island.
"I haven't figured out rotations yet, im having problems getting certain guys minutes who should be getting more. This team has a lot of growth; it's just a matter of trying to figuring it out."
Against Rhode Island the Hall will face a 0-3 team coming off of a 69-58 loss to Ohio State. The Rams were as close as 44-40 with 10 minutes remaining before the Buckeyes pulled away down the stretch.
"Danny has them playing really hard," Willard said of Rhode Island. "They have some tough miss-matches. Their four man is more of an European three man and can really shoot the ball. The two guards are really good and they gave Ohio State everything they could handle."
The Rams are led by junior guard Xavier Munford with an average of 16 points per game. Munford scored 16 against the Buckeyes to lead the team.
These two teams have not faced each other since the 2004-05 season with the Pirates coming out on top by a score of 59-49.
Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
Stephen Valenti can be reached at stephen.valenti@student.shu.edu
