TOLEDO, OH - Rhode Island’s high-octane offense was as prolific as advertised in Toledo’s 86-77 defeat to the Rams on Tuesday night in Savage Arena. The contest served as both team’s final non-conference game prior to opening league play on Saturday.

URI came into the contest ranked among the nation’s top offensive teams and topped the 80-point mark for the eighth time this season. UT held the Rams to 47.1 percent shooting (three percentage points under their season mark of 50.2 percent) but Rhode Island committed a season-low five turnovers in the contest to make offset its lower shooting mark.

“Rhode Island is a very good offensive team and they came out and displayed that tonight,” Toledo Head Coach Gene Cross said. “In order to win at this level you have to get stops and we didn’t do that. I was pleased with how we attacked the basket, but the game came down to getting stops and defensive rebounds. We needed to prevent them from getting second shots, because they are such a good offensive team.”

Senior G Tyrone Kent paced the Rockets’ attack with a game-high 29 points on 12-of-19 shooting, while sophomore F Mohamed Lo hauled down a career-high 17 rebounds to go along with nine points and three blocked shots. Lo’s rebound total was the most by a UT player since former Rocket Greg Stempin grabbed 18 vs. Appalachian State on Dec. 3, 1999.

“I feel each of our players is our growing but we have to get everyone on the same page as a group,” Cross said. “If you have one guy scoring 29 points and one guy getting 17 rebounds that’s great. But we can’t have just two or three guys having good games though. We have to be play as a group and be cohesive, and I didn’t feel that cohesion out of our team tonight. I have to do a better job of make sure each of our heads is on the same page on one day.”

The Rams utilized a balanced attack with four players in double figures led by senior G Jimmy Baron and senior F Kahiem Seawright with 16 points apiece. Junior G Keith Cothran and sophomore C Will Martell notched 15 and 12 points, respectively.

Both teams came out firing on all cylinders with the Rams jumping out to an 18-15 advantage in the first five minutes. Baron sparked the torrid start by hitting four of his first five shots, including three treys.

UT then fell behind by 11 points midway through the half before Kent led the Rockets on a seven-point spurt to cut URI’s lead to 37-33 with 6:42 remaining in the opening stanza. UT continued to push and made it a one-point game at 41-40 on senior G Anthony Byrd’s three-pointer with 3:28 to go. Seawright hit the final two baskets of the half though to give URI a 45-40 advantage heading into the locker room.

Toledo made 14 of its first 20 shots and shot 59.3 percent in the first half but that was offset by Rhode Island’s one turnover.

The Rams quickly reestablished itself by opening the second half with a 9-2 run to take a 54-42 lead. The closest the Rockets could come the rest of the way was 56-50 on senior G Jonathan Amos’ trey with 15:46 to play.

Toledo returns to action with its MAC opener at Northern Illinois on Saturday, Jan. 10. Tip-off time is set for 3:05 p.m. EST.